Run for the Water

Today was race number 3 of the Austin Distance Challenge, the 10 mile Run for the Water. Proceeds from the run go to The Gazelle Foundation, which funds projects for clean drinking water in Burundi Africa. Gilbert's (founder of The Gazelle Foundation) story is pretty amazing.

I didn't have any real goals or expectations for this race since Coach Tracy says I should still be recovering from Longhorn and since I knew I would be up really late watching my Iron friends on Saturday night.

I got up after less than 5 hours of sleep and got to the race site just 15 minutes before the start, I like to get to races early so that is by far the latest I have ever gotten to a race. Immediately I found the Tri Zones tent and Elizabeth. I had read somewhere that she planned to take the run pretty easy since it would be her longest run ever, and at the time I thought maybe I'd try to run with her. I suggested this to her and she seemed happy to have someone to run with.

I headed over to the porto-potty line and it was long! I was still in line when they sang the national anthem! That has never happened to me before. By the time I was heading to the race start I figured I had lost my chance to run with Elizabeth, but she was waiting for me! Cool! We walked to the back of the crowd and less than a minute later we started. I hadn't looked at a course map at all but I had heard most of the run was west of MoPac so I expected hills- and there were hills! Lots of them!

This was my first time to run with Elizabeth but it worked out perfectly. I love to talk while I run but sometimes I just can't do it and at times today was one of those days. It was super humid- the air actually seemed almost liquid! and my allergies have been bad for a couple of weeks so I expected some asthma issues and my breathing was definitely not great today. But Elizabeth likes to talk while she runs too so I got to hear lots of stories about the South Tri Zones team training (I belong to the North team) and about her family. We had a great time and we went slow enough that my not so great breathing wasn't a big problem.

Even though there were lots of hills and we weren't running very fast and my breathing wasn't great the run went by really fast. I think I owe that completely to Elizabeth! I think our finish time was about 2:08. At the finish Gilbert high fived or shook hands with all the finishers- very cool!

Distance Challenge race number 3- completed!

Virtual Spectating for Ironman Florida

My IronFriends Kim, Ingrid and Cassie just before the start. Photo by Nicki DuBose. Nicki posted this picture and "Houston girls are ready for their big day" about 10 minutes before the race started. I loved seeing it!!!

On Saturday 7 of my close friends and a few other acquaintances did IronMan Florida. For anyone who doesn't know an Ironman Triathlon is a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run!

It was the first Ironman for all 7 friends. I felt terrible because I couldn't go to Florida and spectate in person, but I knew I could at least watch online and follow everyone's progress. I got up at 6:00am and started getting the computer set up. I opened the Ironman live video site and set it up to show up on our TV. Then I opened an Ironman checkpoint athlete tracker window for each of my friends and acquaintances. Carolyn, Vickie, Cindy, and Kenneth all also had GPS tracking systems, so I opened a window to track each of them. I also opened Facebook, the Tri Zones forum, and the Kickrunners tri forum. Yeah, all that stuff was open on my computer all day, 17 hours!, but after just a little while I knew exactly where everything was and I could see how anyone was doing at any time.

I watched the swim start and tried and tried to look for my friends but didn't see any of them. I could see when each person finished the first half of the swim on my checkpoint trackers. And Jeff and I cheered out loud each time someone came out of the water to start loop two. Jeff had to go to work so I was alone to see everyone finish the swim and start the bike. Everyone did so well on the swim, I was especially impressed with Cassie's swim, I couldn't believe how much she's improved since last year! I actually got to see Carolyn come out of transition on the live video- very cool! The bike is where the GPS tracking systems really helped. I didn't get any updates for Cassie, and Kim for the entire 112 mile bike. Nicki posted a picture to facebook of Ingrid on the bike and she looked great! Photo by Nicki DuBose

Because Carolyn, Vickie, Cindy, and Kenneth had the GPS trackers I could see where they were for most of the bike course, they didn't work perfectly but it was SO much better than nothing! Kendra came over shortly after everyone started the bike. We caught Vickie and Kenneth on the live video at one point on the bike. We were constantly switching between all the windows to see updates on everyone. Tracy got a few updates from Tom and we saw those on the Tri Zones forum and Nicki posted more updates on Facebook. I posted updates on facebook for friends who wanted to know how everyone was doing, but didn't have time to dedicate their day to virtual spectating.

Kenneth was off the bike, in a blazing fast time and onto the run first. Ingrid was next also with a blazing fast bike split! Then Cindy came in, Vickie wasn't far behind her and Cassie wasn't far behind her and then came Kim. Carolyn's GPS tracker stopped working so we got a little worried about her, but Tom and crew drove out on the course to look for her and then updated us that she was fine, he fixed the GPS and soon Carolyn was finished too!Carolyn on the bike, photo by Nicki DuBose

It was so fun to know that everyone was finished with 114.4 of their 140.6 miles! Jeff came home from work while everyone was biking. We tried and tried to see our friends running on the live video, but we never did and after just 8 hours they cut to the finish line and never went back out to the run course. We watched Carolyn, Vickie, Cindy, and Kenneth's GPS trackers and watched for checkpoint updates for Ingrid, Cassie, and Kim.

Kenneth was first across the finish line and Jeff decided he was going to take a picture of Kenneth crossing the finish line on our TV, but he just missed him! We saw him on the video/TV but Jeff just didn't have the camera ready yet. We expected him at just over 11:30 and he came in at 11:25! WOW!

So when we knew Ingrid should be coming soon Jeff got the camera ready and I think he sat ready to take the picture for about 30 minutes! but he got a great picture! Ingrid's time was also just amazing at 12:37! We all know she's a machine, but I didn't think she'd do her first Ironman in just over 12 and a half hours! We were all screaming and cheering and I called Ingrid to leave a message to tell her how excited we were for her!!
Next was Cassie and again I was amazed at how much she has sped up since last year! Last year she finished the Longhorn half iron in 8:04 and this year she finished Ironman Florida in 13:56, that's just crazy improvement! Or as David Lynch would say "horrible sickness" We got her name in the picture but missed her face, so sad since she had the biggest smile crossing the finish line!Cassie just after finishing, photo by Nicki DuBose

Kim was next and considering she was finishing law school, studying for and taking the bar exam and training for an ironman this summer, I'm impressed she even made it to the starting line, let alone finished in just over 14 hours! Wow!
Cindy came in just a few minutes later looking great! and wearing her Tri Zones gear!
Vickie came in a few minutes later, it was so much fun to see her finish after training with her and seeing in person how hard she has worked this summer!
Carolyn was expecting to have a long day and there were at least 10 Tri Zoners following her progress when she was on her last loop of the run. When she had less than 1 mile to go our live video feed went out!! The Tri Zones forum and facebook lit up with posts like "OMG the live video just went out!!! Carolyn SLOW DOWN so they can get it fixed before you finish!!" Unfortunately the video never came back but at least Carolyn had the GPS tracker so we knew exactly when she finished and with 30 minutes to spare!

It was so much fun to virtual spectate! The only thing that would have been better was actually being in Florida for everyone. It was so much fun to hear Mike Reilly say "You are an IRONMAN" to my friends!

Longhorn 70.3

Longhorn weekend started on Friday after work when Del picked me up and we went over to packet pick up. I’m really glad we did that Friday because the lines looked long on Saturday. We met Richard there and they both stayed at my house Friday and Saturday nights. Saturday morning Richard and I did a short ride and run and it was a COLD morning, I think it was 50 degrees and I was hoping it would be a little warmer Sunday morning. We all went out to Decker for the Jack & Adam’s pancake breakfast and met Ingrid out there.We also hung out with Kendra and Chris at the breakfast. Then we did run bag drop off, bike check in, a quick swim in the lake which felt cold but I got comfortable after about 5 minutes, and pre-race meeting.
We were some of the first people to check in our bikes at transition
The swim course looked calm and beautiful on Saturday

I wanted to be heading home by 1:00 and we were pretty close to on schedule. Pre-race dinner was the typical grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, and roasted tomatoes. Ingrid had decided to stay at a hotel and before she left our house after dinner she said very sternly “all athletes in bed by 8:00!” About 8:15, I was packing up some stuff for in the morning and Jeff said, “Ingrid said you should be in bed by 8:00 everyone else is already in bed” So I went to bed at about 8:20 with lights out at 8:30 and somehow I fell asleep right away. Turns out Del and Richard were in their rooms by 8:00 but they didn’t go to sleep until about 10:00.

We got up at 3:25 am to leave at 4:20 and be to the race site in time to drop off special needs bags near T2 (this was important for me since we couldn’t get into T2 in the morning and I use my Fuelbelt with Infinit for the run) and catch the first bus over to the lake and T1. I got body marked by Kristen and got my transition set up and then just relaxed. I ran into most of the Tri Zoners doing the race. We also went by Greg Bruehler’s transition area which had been set up as a memorial, because he and his wife were killed by a driver in San Antonio while riding their tandem bike, very very sad…

T1 at 5:30 on Sunday morning
Richard and Del setting up transition
At my transition
Del and me pre-race
Jeff and me pre-race
Coach Jen and me pre-race

The race started at 7:30, but my wave didn’t start until 8:20. The Star Spangled Banner was really cool this year, there were 2 parachuters who flew into the race start with a big American flag, so while the anthem was being sung the flag was way up in the air and kept getting closer and closer, the parachuter with the flag landed just before the anthem finished, it was really cool.

Ingrid came out to spectate again this year and she was "super longhorn fan" again this year with foam horns, cowbells, signs, and tons of encouragement! Photo by Tom Marek

I was pretty cold all morning and I had to turn in all my warm clothes to be transported to the finish line, so Ingrid let me borrow her jacket before the start, but my feet were still really cold. When it was finally time to start I lined up with Nicole and I was not excited about getting in the cold water, but it actually didn’t feel bad since I was already cold. The first 10 minutes of my swim was awful. Lots of contact at first (which is to be expected) and someone hit my goggles just right so they started leaking, I tried to reposition them to stop the leaking, but they kept leaking. I think I stopped, treaded water and tried to fix them 5 times in the first 10 or so minutes of the swim, the water in my eyes was really annoying and for the first time ever, I got a little anxious/upset while I was in the water- not a good feeling. But I told myself I just needed to deal with it, I love the water and can swim just fine and a little water in my eyes won’t kill me. After that I just dealt with the water in the goggles and had a pretty decent swim. My eyes are really red today from all that lake water. My swim time was 43:10, my goal was 40-45 minutes, so that was right on target even with all the stopping in the first few minutes. I got out of the water and running up the hill to transition I saw Jeff, Ingrid, Vickie, and Kenneth. I got my bike stuff on and was out of transition in 4:49.One of my biggest goals this year was to improve my bike time from last year. I got out on the course and saw Annette, Emmie, Elizabeth, and Kim in the first few miles, I was feeling really good. I was pretty happy with my average pace of 14.2 after the first 10 hilly miles around Decker, I knew I could bring that up on the flatter sections of the course. Taylor and Littig went really well for me, and I had my average speed up to 15.0 before I turned onto Monkey road. Just like last year, Monkey road was windy, but I dealt with it a lot better this year and didn't have any real issues with it except that I couldn’t keep my speed where I wanted it. We headed into the wind on Upper Elgin and Hogeye some too. Since I was one of the last waves to start, I assumed everyone I knew was ahead of me on the bike course, but Richard passed me, I guess he ended up behind me in the swim. We played tag a few times on the Upper Elgin and Hogeye section. When I made the turn onto Webberville, I knew I would still have some wind, mostly cross wind, but I knew I should have a tail wind in spots and I only had about 15 miles to go, so I really pushed at this point, I got my average speed back up above 15 and I was feeling great. I finished the bike at 15.3 mph and in 3:40:10. The one mistake I made on the bike was only drinking 2 bottles of Infinit instead of 3, my stomach felt a little upset the entire ride, probably from drinking/inhaling lake water on the swim, so I was really worried if I drank too much it would upset my stomach even more for the run.

I saw Ingrid as I was coming in to transition, and of course she was cheering like crazy! I got my run stuff on which took a long time because I decided to wear my compression socks for the run. T2 was 5:58.

Photo by Tom Marek

I ran out and through the arena, which was cool, but I knew it would be 100 times more fun when I ran through again to the finish. I ran out of the arena into the team tailgating area and as I got close to the Tri Zones area the cheering was insane! I told Ingrid later, “last year it was super super fun and cool to run by the HRTC team tent, but the Tri Zones tent this year was just indescribable” Every single person at the tent was standing up and cheering like crazy when I came by, it was so cool it made me laugh out loud and almost cry a little too. I wish there was a picture of everyone cheering from the vantage point that I saw, it was just amazing! I think I will forever remember that as the spirit of Tri Zones. A few of the Tri Zones More Cowbell Corps watching for the next Tri Zones runner. Photo by Tom Marek

I was actually surprised by how good I felt on the first loop of the run, I saw Amy and Lynn at aid stations and Nicki, Julie and Red running. Starting the second loop I got to run by the Tri Zones tent again- awesome! Photo by Tom Marek

On the second loop my stomach got a little upset a couple of times, but if I walked for a minute or 2 it got better. I saw Richard, Sandra, Nicole, Stacy, Maggie, and Vanessa running and of course got to go by Lynn and Amy’s aid stations again, I also saw Ron and Roger and they cheered for me like crazy too. It was starting to feel pretty warm so I was happy to get ice water and get sprayed down by water guns and hoses at the aid stations. Starting the third loop I got to run by the Tri Zones tent again and I was still feeling pretty good. Kenneth, Bob, and Jeff relaxing while waiting for the next Tri Zones runner at the team tailgating area. Photo by Tom Marek

Just after starting the third loop, I realized I was definitely going to finish between 7:15 and 7:20 even if I slowed way down, so I was really happy. I saw Sandra, Richard, Nicole, Stacy and Lynn again. By mile 10 I was starting to get tired, my legs still felt good, my stomach was doing ok, but my breathing was tough, I just couldn’t catch my breath unless I walked, so I decided I would run the flats and downhills and walk the uphills for the last 3 miles. Amy’s aid station was at about 12.4 miles and when I came through she offered me a beer, I thought about taking it, but instead I told her, if I take that now I might puke before I finish. Coming into the team tailgating area just before the finish was awesome, I couldn’t stop smiling, the Tri Zoners had all come across to the other side to cheer for me and then I got to run into the arena, it was really awesome, people were yelling my name, I guess from seeing it on my number, and then they announced I was finishing- it was just amazing. Keith Jordan wasn’t kidding when he said you’d feel like a rockstar finishing in the arena! I got my medal and stuff and hugged Jeff and Ingrid and told Ingrid I had finished in 7:15, she was super excited for me! Jeff asked how I felt and I told him “the only thing that hurts is my cheeks from smiling so much!” and it was true! Then I really wanted to go right back outside to the team tailgating area to cheer for my friends who were still running, I really wanted to be part of that Tri Zones cheering section that had made me feel so good!

My official finish time is 7:14:56, last year my time was 7:59 and if you account for the short swim last year it really should have been about 8:10 so I got an official improvement of 45 minutes, but it’s really more like 55 minutes, I took 28 minutes off my bike time and 24 minutes off my run time! I owe it all to Tri Zones and especially Coach Jen and the peak performance workouts!

finisher medal, hat, and towel, an icee pop, and big smile post race! Photo by Tom Marek

Photo by Tom Marek

Peggy and Mike hosted a post race party complete with a hot tub and a champagne toast! And Cindy brought an Ironman carved pumpkin.

IBM Uptown Classic 10K

The Tri Zones group post-race. Photo by Emmie Carrigan

The IBM 10K is Distance Challenge race #2. The Longhorn 70.3 is one week from today so, on Thursday Coach Jen told us to run the IBM 10K at an easy training pace. After Shawn and Charlie's wedding reception Saturday afternoon and Coach Jen's "Reinhart Oktoberfest" (complete with TONS of German food, German beer, a German band, and all the Reinharts in lederhosen- WOW) Saturday night, I figured I had pretty much guaranteed I would have a pretty bad race at IBM and I really didn't mind because I had a ton of fun on Saturday and I had no intention of racing hard anyway.

When my alarm went off at 5:45 I was sure it was going to be a rough day. I ate eggs and roasted potatoes for breakfast hoping to absorb what was left of the German food and beer in my stomach. I got to IBM early and hung out with Kristen and Julie and her dad Joe. All the Tri Zoners started showing up and as always it was a lot of fun hanging out and talking with everyone pre-race. It was a cold moring- about 55 degrees. Most of the group did a 1-2 mile warm-up but I skipped that and stayed in my long pants and fleece a little longer.
Relaxing and having fun pre-race. Photo by Shalya Neris.

When the race started I started off really slow to warm up, I felt good, but I had to speed up a little just to get warm. I took miles 1, 2, and 3 very easy, we ran through the Domain and I saw Lynn out cheering. At mile 4 I started to speed up just a little and then I did the last 2 miles a little faster yet. Kristen and Shayla were all over the course cheering and taking pictures! The course was nice, a few rolling hills in the second half, and it felt to me like there was more downhill than uphill. I ran harder the last 1/2 mile or so because I was feeling really good. My pace for the second half was almost a minute faster than my pace for the first half. I finished in 1:10:10 which is actually a PR by 10 seconds!
About to finish! Photo by Emmie Carrigan.

I had a great time hanging out with all the Tri Zoners after the race and I also saw Maggie and Amy. I also got a short massage from Michael at Performance Wellness. Distance Challenge race number 2- done!

Silicon Labs Marathon Relay

Red, Eva, Andrew, Monica, and I at the Silicon Labs Marathon Relay
I'm REALLY late putting up a report for this race, the race was Sept 27, but it was so much fun that I thought I should do one. This race is made up of 5 person teams who run a marathon, the first leg is 12K, followed by 2 10K legs and 2 5K legs. I ran with Red, Andrew, Eva, and Monica, they are all a lot faster than me, but when I suggested maybe we have a slower and faster Tri Zones team, they insisted I join their team. Andrew and Red picked me up early and we got an awesome and free! parking spot. In the end there were 2 Tri Zones teams anyway and we had a great time hanging out at the tent waiting to start our runs and cheering for our teammates. I ran our first 10K leg so Red handed off our bracelet to me. I felt great on the run, it was a beautiful sunny morning. I ended up running in 1:10:20, a PR for me since I've never done a 10K run before. Strange since I've done lots of olympic distance triathlons including 10K runs. Just before I finished I saw the first place team finishing, they got a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, very cool! I handed off the bracelet to Andrew and he took off. As the morning went on, it got hotter and I felt bad for our later runners. If anyone should have run in the heat it should have been me, since I generally handle it better than most people. Oh well, we never would have guessed it would get so hot that morning. Our team finished in 4:08:50. Race one of the Distance Challenge- done!

The Austin Tri

Tri Zones group photo by Tom Marek.

I did the Austin Tri last year in preparation for Longhorn the weekend I moved to Austin. It was a fun race and I'm doing Longhorn again this year so I decided to do it again. Del did the sprint last year and this year did the olympic to get ready for Longhorn. David also came out to race and tons of Tri Zoners raced this year. Since Del is on vacation, he came out on Thursday and we went to Homeslice with Fred and Lori on Friday night. Lori is loving her new bike and is going to Rock the Livestrong Challenge!

On Sunday we did packet pickup and stopped by the Tri Zones booth. See that picture on the table to the left of Del, that's Jeff, me, Cassie, Ross, and Del at Couples! I didn't even see it until Jeff noticed it in this picture.
Coach Gina, Little Pam, and Coach Tracy
We racked our bikes talked to a few more friends and then headed home
Del in the transition area with Town Lake and downtown Austin in the background
Del and I got up early to get to Audtorium Shores and set up transition. Jeff was planning to come down a little later and spectate. I got my transition set up, talked with David and still had almost 2 hours to wait. I got to see David get out of the water and on his bike, and talked with all my Tri Zones friends. Lots of them did their first olympic tri today!I love this picture! It embodies the spirit of Tri Zones. Photo by Tom Marek.
Katie, me, and Audra right before my swim wave started. Photo by Tom Marek.

My goal was to try to beat all my times from last year. I knew it would be tough because I felt like I had a good race last year. My swim felt good and was pretty uneventful until the end. On the way back I kept looking for the last turn buoy to turn in toward the finish, but I never saw it. The sun was in my eyes, but I looked and looked and never saw it. I decided they must not have one, so when I saw other people turning toward the finish, I did too. But then I thought, there's just no way they don't have a turn buoy, so I stopped and looked all around me. The turn bouy was behind me. I just couldn't cheat, even though that probably wasn't a big deal. So I went back and turned around the buoy, as I did a girl breast stroking kicked my hand hard, it still hurts. My swim time ended up being 35:51, about 25 seconds slower than last year, but I easily would have beat last year's time without my stupid mistake, oh well.

T1 is really long at the Austin Tri, jogging on the dirt/grass into transition, getting stuff together and then jogging with the bike out to the mount line. My transition was a minute longer this year, at 5:31 not sure why, I didn't feel like I took any longer at anything.

My biggest goal for this race was to improve my bike time, the course was exactly the same, 3 loops on Congress and out to and around Austin High. Last year I averaged 14.9 mph and felt like I had a good ride and went about as fast as I could. This year I decided to keep my computer on avg. speed and try to keep it above 15 mph. It worked really well, after the first loop I was at 15.5 and feeling good, after the second loop I was up to 15.7, the third time up the hills on Congress was tough, but I kept working hard and I ended up with a 16.0 mph avg. speed, my fastest ever at an olympic distance tri! Apparently I stick my tongue out when I'm concentrating on trying to ride hard. Photo by Tom Marek.

I saw lots of Tri Zoners on the ride and lots of Tri Zoners out spectating. So many people yelled my name, it was really fun! I didn't recognize everyone, but I did see Coach Tracy, Blonde Pam, Nicole and Stacey H., Tom and Lynn spectating. Bike time was 1:32:50 compared to 1:40:09 last year.

I was really happy with my bike, but I was afraid it might have ruined my chances for a good run. I saw Little Pam and Nicole in T2, T2 was 3:24 compared to 3:43 last year.

I got out on the run and knew it was going to be a tough one. After the first mile or so, I realized I needed to slow down a little. This race doesn't have mile markers so I don't know how fast I was going, but by feel, it was way too fast for me to sustain for 6.2 miles. It was definitely getting hot too. I slowed down and felt a little better, but I was still breathing hard and my legs were tired. I was having a little trouble breathing and probably should have used my inhaler, this morning my chest hurts a little and I'm conjested, definite signs I was having some asthma issues and should have used the inhaler, oh well. I saw David and Gillian cheering for me and a little later I saw Jeff. I also saw tons of Tri Zoners all over the course. Emmie, Carolyn, Vickie, and Dustin at the Tri Zones spectator area. Photo by Tom Marek.

I played tag with Little Pam a few times, but when her side stitches got better she took off. There were Tri Zoners cowbelling all over the course, I remember seeing Coach Jen, Sarah G, Stacey H was everywhere and of course Tom was everywhere taking pictures, but there were tons of other people who cheered for me - so much fun! Stacey H. was a professional spectator! I can't even count the number of times I saw her on the bike and run course cheering for all of us! Photo by Tom Marek.

I saw Nicki's friend Alysha (who sagged the Longhorn course for us) and she yelled something about "if you can still smile then you aren't running hard enough" Ha, she obviously doesn't know me too well, I could be on my deathbed and I'd still smile at a friendly face! The entire second loop of the run I was thinking I had to beat 3:35 to beat last year's time. I felt like my run was slower, so I was feeling good when I came in at 3:32:53, but later I realized my time last year was 3:39:32 so I beat my PR by 6:39!! My run times were about the same, 1:15:38 last year and 1:15:15 this year. Everyone agreed the run was hot and pretty miserable, so at least I wasn't alone on that one.

It was so much fun to see everyone do so well today! All my Tri Zones friends doing their first olympic had great races, everyone I know doing the sprint had a great race. Del had a great race and David finished high in the overall standings. What a fun day!!