2010 Tri Thread

[tiberius]

Me anxiety? Nahh, not at all.

Nothing wrong with a little anxiety, just proves you're human...but try to remember to enjoy the experience some while you are there.

Good luck, Carrie!

 

[Duanerice]

Yahoo Carrie! I'd be so nervous........

Jeff - super cool. I can't see the pictures though. On Facebook? I'll go check when I get home.

Jen, ride with harry, drag the bike. Ride with Harry, drag the bike. That is a new brick I never thought of

enjoy all,
Duane

 

[ironz]

Wanted to check in...and glad I did!

Carrie...you're doing a 1/2? Awesome! PM me your race number and I'll look out for you! The RD is a good guy, too (friend of mine).

Jeff...love the Tinman shirt... There used to be a Tinman in Louisiana, and one of my favorite race shirts is from that race.

Tiberius and Cewait...of course, you're in IM Texas! I didn't sign up. Sorry, but I like the more 'homey' races like Canada, LP, CDA. I hope it all proves me wrong, but I haven't seen as good an atmosphere at IMs in bigger towns (Tempe, for example). I'm signed up for IM Austria for 2011, and hope it goes ok after the St. George badness (and the IMC badness before that). You'd think I could maybe get faster one of these times.

As for the bike...max that I know of is 48 mph. Haven't had an speedometer on my bike in a long time, so no idea. I love to ride fast (on good roads).

 

[wtpclc]

Betsy!!!! I've been meaning to PM you. I've missed you! Wanted ot tell you of my great adventure this weekend too. I'll need a decent amount of the extra time I get form being in an early wave, but it's very doable, as long as there are no catastophies. IM Austria? Cool! Oh, I have e-mailed questiosn about the race a couple of times. Don't think I actually got the RD, but the people who responded were exceptionally kind. I've been very impressed. How's the body doing? Are you back to full strength?

Jen - Good luck tomorrow night! Have fun! Love teh description of HArry's brick!

Off tomorrow. Will head down in teh am, it's only about 1.5 hours away. Will meet aladdinsgirl adn skfulkers there. Yay! Will do the expo and bike check and scope things out. Pretend to slseep, you know, the basics. Today's going to be a long day.

Thanks for teh good wishes all!!!

 

[Duanerice]

I'm signed up for IM Austria for 2011, and hope it goes ok after the St. George badness (and the IMC badness before that).

Had some folks from our team do St George. From what I hear that has to be one of the most physically challenging courses on the IM circuit. But also one of the most beautiful too. Be proud you did it!

We have some folks planning on going to New Zealand in 2012. Trying to talk a bunch of us into it. Not sure, probably won't. If I go to NZ it will be for pure vacation, not to do an IM. Kona is as far as I want to go

enjoy,
Duane

 

[DiRTyBuNNy]

Betsy!!!! I've been meaning to PM you. I've missed you! Wanted ot tell you of my great adventure this weekend too. I'll need a decent amount of the extra time I get form being in an early wave, but it's very doable, as long as there are no catastophies. IM Austria? Cool! Oh, I have e-mailed questiosn about the race a couple of times. Don't think I actually got the RD, but the people who responded were exceptionally kind. I've been very impressed. How's the body doing? Are you back to full strength?

Jen - Good luck tomorrow night! Have fun! Love teh description of HArry's brick!

Off tomorrow. Will head down in teh am, it's only about 1.5 hours away. Will meet aladdinsgirl adn skfulkers there. Yay! Will do the expo and bike check and scope things out. Pretend to slseep, you know, the basics. Today's going to be a long day.

Thanks for teh good wishes all!!!

Wanted to chime in and say good luck. We'll all be cheering you on!

--DB

 

[mkymsehi]

Have a great race Carrie. May the wind be at your back.

 

[jmasgat]

Carrie rocks!!!! Congrats on finishing your first Half IM

Maura

 

[Duanerice]

Yahoo! Congrats to both you and Scott.

Duane

 

[mgsmom]

Anxiously awaiting race reports!

 

[hoosmi]

Hey kids!

I'm stalking this thread waiting for Carrie's report...

Did my Midnight Ready Set Glow 5k. Not that exciting compared to a half-Ironman!

Showed up at 11:45 p.m. - the beauty of a local race. Put my packet in the car and was amazed to see lots of little kids on the playground by the start. Tons of people were there- I guess the novelty of racing at midnight got them too. We got glowstick bracelets that were cute in a theme kind of way, but absolutely useless. Instead of a race number, they just marked our hands.

I've done this course before- you go up a hill to the hospital (the ambulances always make me laugh). I charged up the hill and finished the first mile in 7:35. D'oh! I could barely see my Garmin, but knew I'd fallen victim to race adreneline. Next mile was about 8:15 and finally the third miserable mile was 8:45- for an overall 25:5x. I was just ten seconds behind a friend who always finishes near me so I felt good. Did I mention the heat index at midnight was 102 degrees?!

The age group awards were every 10 years and only one deep! How crazy hardcore is that? Needless to say, I didn't win anything (although my friend who beat me won his age group- he's 62. Funny aside- my husband was cracking up that I compete with someone 62 until I told him that Ron got up on the morning of his birthday and ran 62 miles just to see if he could...)

That's pretty much it. I took Harry on another "brick" workout on Sunday. This time he rode his bike for about 3 blocks and then abandoned it to run to the park. When he first got on his bike he said "I love my bike- I'm going to win that marathon and give you my medal!" At first I thought it was ridiculously cute and then I thought maybe he was just manipulating me into dragging his bike to the park.

Jen in GA

 

[tiberius]

Did my Midnight Ready Set Glow 5k. Not that exciting compared to a half-Ironman!

Jen in GA

I love night events, and I think they are exciting enough to not worry about comparison.

 

[monsterkitty]

Anxiously awaiting race reports!

Do I really have to give one?

There were 3,000 women in the tri-for-the-cure here yesterday. I was in wave 8 with 125 other women.

I headed down to the boat ramp with the other women in my wave and took an outside spot on the edge of the ramp near the front of the pack. I should have known it was an ominous sign when my heart rate monitor said my heart rate was zero. I joked that I hadn't even started the race yet and I was already dead. One lady did not find that humorous.

The starter counted down from 10 so I started my watch timer and put on my goggles. Before she got to 1 I was pushed from behind, causing me to fall off the boat ramp and getting my foot caught between the ramp and some rocks. Of course this is the foot that I need to have surgery on to remove some bone chips and scar tissue so it didn't feel too good. I then was jumped on and swam over by the ladies behind me. At this point I swam more to the side and re-evaluated my strategy.

I let the other women pass me while I swam because I knew that many of them would run out of steam. The water was so green that you couldn't see 5 inches in front of you, so it was easy to swim right over a person. I didn't want someone to feel as freaked as I did at the start if I swam over them, so I did most of the swim in breast stroke. It also hurt my foot to flex it so the whip kick was much better for it than the flutter. My time was a very disappointing 15:30 minutes for the 1/2 mile.

When I got out I could barely walk so I doubted that I would finish the race. But, I blocked the pain and made my way to the transition area. It took me a few more minutes than I would have liked in T1, mainly because putting my sock and shoe on put pressure on my foot. I just tied my shoe as loosely as I dared and grabbed my bike. The bike start was pretty far from my rack, so I hobbled to it slowly. T1 time was a horrible 8 minutes.

Now don't laugh here, but my bike is a mountain bike with the fat tires and it is about 15 or 16 years old. It also weighs about 400 pounds. Around mile 2 I grabbed my water bottle with my Cytomax in it and promptly dropped it. Stopping obviously is not an option so I made do with water in my other bottle. My bike time for the 12 miles was a little under 45 minutes. Not great, but better than I usually do.

T2 I stopped to use the potty and re-adjust my shoe. My foot felt better, but not great. Time was a little under 6 minutes.

Side note here, as I started my run, I saw my husband off to the side and so I went over to him. He couldn't believe that I was already on the run because I had been doing the bike ride in 55-60 minutes. The look of shock on his face made me laugh. He also tried to get me to stop because he could see my foot was hurt. He know the look on my face when I block pain, but there was no way in heck I was going to stop.

I couldn't do a practice run on this course because it is on a street with no spot to run without being in traffic. I thought that only the first mile would be uphill, but no, it was the first 1 and 3/4 mile. Remember when I dropped my Cytomax? It began to show here. The cramps started in my hamstrings and then slowly made their sweet way down to my calves. Add to that my stupid foot and it was getting harder and harder to block. I am embarrassed to say that I walked probably half the course. My time was almost 38 minutes. I am usually at 30 minutes for the run, so that was a disappointment as well.

My time was 1:52.

I am very disappointed in myself. I let my nerves get to me in the swim, my strongest leg. However, for my first tri I am using it as a learning experience. I understand that most races do not have 125/wave, so hopefully I won't experience the start I had again. And, if I do I will be more mentally prepared. My freestyle never felt "right" yesterday, my shoulders were very tight in addition to my foot. I think this is because I didn't do a swim warm-up like I should have.

My transition times obviously were bad, so I need to work on those.

For the bike - I am saving my money this winter for a road bike. The ladies around me at the rack laughed when they saw my heavy mountain bike with the fat tires. One of the ladies later told me that if I got a different bike, or even just road tires on my current bike I could take 5-10 minutes off the bike time. Not sure if that is accurate, but I'm going with it. Oh, and don't drop your Cytomax bottle in the first few miles on a hot day!

For the run - I think next time I will take a second to at least stretch my hamstrings. I know my problems were the lack of electrolytes in my system. Also, I thought they would have Gatorade at the aide stations but it was only water. At this point I needed more than just water.

So, tomorrow I have my foot x-rayed. Today it is swollen and purple. I can't wear a shoe because it pushes on the navicular bone and that doesn't feel to great.


Now, aren't you glad you asked for a race report?

 

[mgsmom]

For the bike - I am saving my money this winter for a road bike. The ladies around me at the rack laughed when they saw my heavy mountain bike with the fat tires. One of the ladies later told me that if I got a different bike, or even just road tires on my current bike I could take 5-10 minutes off the bike time. Not sure if that is accurate, but I'm going with it. Oh, and don't drop your Cytomax bottle in the first few miles on a hot day!

For the run - I think next time I will take a second to at least stretch my hamstrings. I know my problems were the lack of electrolytes in my system. Also, I thought they would have Gatorade at the aide stations but it was only water. At this point I needed more than just water.

So, tomorrow I have my foot x-rayed. Today it is swollen and purple. I can't wear a shoe because it pushes on the navicular bone and that doesn't feel to great.


Now, aren't you glad you asked for a race report?

I think you should be SO proud of yourself for finishing - and I think your time sounds good to me!!!

I have to agree on the bike thing - I did my first tri with a 400 lb mountain bike with fat tires - then, I just did one with an entry level Giant road bike. Holy cow, I can't even tell you. I knocked almost 30 min off my bike time!!!

I hear you about needing more than water! The only 2 tri's I have done have given water and Powerade.

Let us know how your foot is - I can't believe you finished with it hurting like that! I hope you don't have to have surgery or anything major!

Congrats on a big finish!

 

[hoosmi]

monsterkitty-
What a horrible start! The last tri I did had the timed start- kind of high pressure because they had two people run in together every 5 seconds. I had other issues (hello, ocean!) but I liked it better than the first tri where I just tried to stay out of the way of chaos...

How brave of you to finish! Your bike time sounds pretty fast for a clunky old mountain bike. I shaved a bunch of time going from a rental hybrid in my first race to an entry-level Trek road bike. Your run sounds pretty fast to me too. Lots of people in my tri class were around that time and I don't think they'd been injured on their way into the water!

I'm sorry it wasn't the ideal race, but at least going forward you'll always know you've got a lot of mental toughness! Hope your foot gets better soon!

Jen in GA

 

[wtpclc]

Monsterkitty - OMG, you rock! You did great! To have that happen to you before teh race adn still do tha twell is awesome!!

I promise to do a full report, but I have had no time. Friends in from out of town. Here's a mini-report:

So much to say about the race. Was rainign at the start. yuck! I did really well witht he swim, but was slower than I wanted. Still, I did it and did freestyle the whole way.

The bike was gogod. Was tired of having mud on everything. Was rady to be done at mile 20. Still, I was really pleased with my time.

First 3 miles of the run were great. iwa s thrilled. Legs felt wonderfu;. Could do that forever. Then the heat adn hills hit. Walked the hills. Walked the boring hot stretches. Still, I planned on 16 mpm and ketp it clsoer to 15.


Finally saw Scott across teh way at about mile 8. I think I win wife of the year for making Scott shoult about 10 times across about 50 yd that he had been swept. Yeah, I'm th best wife. ;-p Just couldn't comprehend what he was telling me. Got to say, that took what little joy there was out. :-( Talk about your hollow victory. After he finished and I got the whole scoop, I felt better. Of course, he was pretty much just putting on a brave face.


Scott rocked th swim! he was about 6 min faster on his 1.2 mile swim than his 0.9 mile swim last year in Chicago. Got to the bike and was flying high. I'll try to keep it short. he said he will do a report this time. I think he needs it to put it in perspectiv.e So, he ends up sepandign over 25 min helping 2 different people change tubes. Ends up dumping his water both times adn the 2nd time, it was muddy, so he could not clip one shoe back in. Who the heck enters a 70.3 not knowing how to change a tube??????? But no way could Scott pass them by without askign if they need help. So, with about 5 miles out, he and another guy (Phil) get told that they had 20 min to finish or get swept. He doesn't want to cut it close, so he starts hammering. Finishes in 15 min. Crosses the line and is told he missed by 2 min. Hand in your chip, you're done. Now, he did remember the cutoff wrong and that was his mistake. It just seems wrong to me that someone tolfdd him he had about 20 min and was off by 7, though. :-(


Anyway, so he racks his bike and pouts a bit adn sees Phil heading out of T2 for the run. He asks him if he's still going to run and Phil says yes. So, Scott heads out too. I think this is the biggest rebel thing he has ever done! he pulls off and awesome run. Finishes, adn does not go for medal or shirt, as he knows he has an official finish. Sees later that Phil actually got them. Still, I don't think he would have taken them if offred because he was not an official finisher. He's struggling with all this now. Knows in his heart that the bling doeans't matter and he would have met his goal if not for teh helping others adn a fewother weird thigns that happeneed. Still....... I feel so bad for him. It just seems so wrong in the cosmic scheme of things. on teh flip side, I am so proud of him. he did awesome on teh race and is just too good of a person to let people struggle when he oculd help. Seems much mroe important than a medal and a shirt in the overall scheme of things.


Oh, and who the heck gives out a long sleeved shirt fro a July 31 race?????? Ugh.


Huge thanks to all of you fo thinking of us! It was a wonderful feeling to have such support!

 

[tiberius]

Finishes, and does not go for medal or shirt, as he knows he has an official finish. Sees later that Phil actually got them. Still, I don't think he would have taken them if offered because he was not an official finisher. He's struggling with all this now. Knows in his heart that the bling doesn't matter and he would have met his goal if not for the helping others and a few other weird things that happened. Still....... I feel so bad for him. It just seems so wrong in the cosmic scheme of things. on the flip side, I am so proud of him. he did awesome on the race and is just too good of a person to let people struggle when he could help. Seems much more important than a medal and a shirt in the overall scheme of things.

Great going for you both, I think Scott's character is worth far more than any finisher medal!

 

[wtpclc]

Jen - Forgot to say congrats on teh 5k! SOunds liek it was fun, although killer hot.

Richard - you are right. Scott knows that too. Of course he's just picking every bit of his bike time apart fro his 2 min now, though. He'll get over it. It's early yet.

 

[El&Asmom]

Great job monsterkitty and Carrie! You should both be proud of yourselves.

I am so excited, less than 3 weeks until my first tri. I wish I could swim freestyle. My time would be so much better if I didn't have to do a breaststroke.
Oh well, better than not racing at all.

 

[Duanerice]

WOW! Such great races this last week.

Jen, you know better than to blast up the first hill I've only done one 5k where I was crazy like that. Boy I paid for it on mile 2 and 3. I love night races though.

Monsterkitty. What a great race considering all that happened. When things go well it's easy. Finishing when things go wrong is impressive. You need to be proud. Also, a 1/2 swim in 15:30 is pretty darn good. Don't kid yourself, most people can't swim that fast.

Carrie, can't wait for all the details. I do feel for Scott. I know I wouldn't have stopped to help someone change a tire. If they were hurt, yes by all means, but not a tire in a HIM. Kudos to Scott.

Nothing on tap for me until Oct 3.

enjoy,
Duane