KC Tri Chick

Movin' on over

2011-01-13T17:01:00.001-06:00

Time for a new blog! Follow if you like :)
http://joggingstrollerdiaries.wordpress.com

Better than Ironman

2010-09-07T16:31:00.003-05:00

Miss Bridget Elaine Hurley made her appearance on Thursday, September 2nd at 5:14 pm, weighing in at 8lbs 1oz and 18.5" long. I was actually scheduled for a c-section tomorrow (Wednesday), but went for my regular check up on Thursday and got sent to the hospital for monitoring since my BP was a little high. A couple hours on the monitors and we got the word that my doctor decided it would be best to get the baby out that night. So we had about an hour's notice before I was taken down to surgery. Not really the way I had planned it, but at least I didn't have time to sit around and worry and be nervous! Hard to believe this perfect little thing was balled up in my belly for the last 9 months!

Things are going well, she's a bit of a night owl, so we're getting adjusted to running on a couple hours of sleep. But I wouldnt have it any other way :)

The other good news, is that my swelling is already almost completely gone! Hello feet and ankles! Don't *quite* feel like running just yet due to the incision and whatnot, but at least I should be able to get my running shoes back on now.

Oh, hai

2010-08-30T11:41:00.002-05:00

1. Yes, I'm still here.
2. No, I haven't had that baby yet.

Does that about cover it? I thought so. (seriously though, people can stop asking me the two above questions ANY DAY NOW)

So yeah, 1 week to go. Well, more like one week and two days. Yep, I have an actual date and time. The good thing about this is that it satisfies my inner planner who needs to know exactly when everything is happening and where and why and who will be there and how long it will last. The bad thing is it means I have to have a c-section.

That's right, this child is breech and appears to have no interest in turning herself head down. I've tried everything; various positions and exercises, chiropractic, accupuncture, and.....nothing. She likes where she is. We even tried a version last week, which is where the doctor pushes on the baby (i.e. pushes on ME) to try to get her to turn. Let me tell you what this kid did. As soon as the doctor would get her to start moving, she'd duck her head out from under the doctor's hand, and stick out her legs to put on the breaks. Little Miss Attitude already!

I shouldn't be surprised. This is my child, afterall. She appears to be taking after her mama and will not be forced to do something. She likes where she's at, thankyouverymuch, and you can't convince her that moving just a little bit would be better for everyone involved. I predict a lifetime of us butting heads due to identical personalities.

So yes, it is a bit disappointing. I'll have to get the epidural that I was not going to get, and I'll have to meet my daughter while I'm strapped to an operating table, and all of those benefits of a natural, drug free birth that I was so excited about are out the window. Not really ideal. But, I know this is just the first of many things that I will have no control over when it comes to parenting, so I'm just going to have to roll with it. Because regardless of how it happens, I WILL get to meet my daughter, and at this point when I've been waiting nearly two and a half YEARS to bring home a baby, I just can't even fathom being upset about how it happens.

And let me just say that as much as I have enjoyed and felt completely blessed to even be pregnant in the first place, I'm done with it. I've officially turned into that crabby 9 month pregnant woman who would like to punch you in the face for asking how I feel. There's just nothing comfortable about the last couple weeks of pregnancy. But, it will soon be over, and I'm assuming there is some built in mechanism that makes women forget how shitty they feel the last few weeks, because plenty of people seem to go on to have more than one child. And I can only assume that the husbands somewhat forget too, because I'm pretty sure there would be no repeat baby makin' going on if they remembered clearly how "pleasant" we are to live with these last few weeks before the baby comes.

It doesnt help matters that we've had the hottest summer on record for the past several years, and now that it's starting to "cool off" and I'm starting to get hints of fall being around the corner, I am ready to put on my running shoes. One morning last week I walked outside and it was SO nice and cool, it just felt like a race morning. I dont know exactly what it was, but it felt so wrong that I was not getting into a wetsuit or lining up at a starting line somewhere. I am ready. Assuming things go as planned, I should be able to start running again by mid-October, which is PERFECT timing weather-wise, and I'll be able to start back up with Runners Edge in Januray. I can't wait. I'm literally chomping at the bit.

Now, to just get this child out!

39w

Chugging along...on swollen feet

2010-06-17T11:34:00.005-05:00

Seriously, my feet are out of control. Out. Of. Control. I am running out of shoes that I can squeeze them into, even my Crocs are tight. And I'm not talking about "comfortably" squeezing my feet into shoes. Oh no, we passed that stage a long time ago. I'm talking about being able to have some sort of covering on my feet since it's generally required if you are going anywhere in public. Or work.

I put my old running shoes on the other night, and they went on, but barely. And rather painfully. I'm surprised the seams didnt bust.

In other news, Tuesday was night 6 of Bradley classes. Yay! Halfway done! This class was all about pushing, or Stage 2 labor. About what you'd expect. Lets just say that I heard the word "perineum" spoken more in that 2 hour period that I have in my entire life, or ever care to again.

I am starting to get sick of some of the people in our class though. (this is where my "I Hate People" disorder comes into play) One couple in particular. The wife is CONSTANTLY touching her husband. And not just holding his hand or something benign like that. Her favorite thing seems to be stroking his face. She is always stroking his face! I'm glad they're in love and all, but come on. It's a little sickening. I'm not big on PDA anyway, but I'm normally not totally turned off by it. These two just take it to a weird level.

And they ask the stupidest questions! Mainly the husband. Look dude, you dont need a detailed explanation of Kegels. You're not the one who's supposed to be doing them. And if you cant figure out where the cervix is even though there is a freaking DIAGRAM with LABELS right in front of your face, then go home and study up. Don't waste our (my) time asking about it. And for the love of Christ, when your wife is in labor you will "let" her move about whenever and wherever she damn well pleases. You dont need to ask for a detailed list of the times it is appropriate to let her move. Not to mention it is THEIR fault we have class in a church over in Mission Hills. Our instructor normally teaches it out of her house, which happens to be literally half a mile from our house. But because these two live in LEAVENWORTH, our instructor found somewhere a little farther north to accomodate them better.

I normally get irritated pretty quickly by people, but dang. These two just push my buttons more than normal. Even though I THINK I have done a pretty good job of keeping myself in check the last few months, I'm going to blame this one on the hormones.

28w6

Friday Randomness

2010-06-11T15:35:00.003-05:00

I am seriously about to move to Alaska. For two reasons.
1) I am DONE with summer. And it's not even officially summer yet! I feel huge and uncomfortable and awkward and bloated and sweaty. My hands and feet will not stop pouring sweat from them. I'd walk around naked if that were appropriate, but I still dont think it would help much. So Courtney and I have decided we're going to go live in an igloo and adopt some penguins and a polar bear cub to keep us company. Sounds like a plan.

2) The Big 12 is totally fucked (well, it's basically GONE) and I am no longer looking forward to football season. I dont want to be in the Big 10! I don't care about Penn State or Michigan or Ohio State or Purdue. I like the Big 12. About this time every year is when I really start looking forward to football season, and that is just shot to shit now. UGH.

Oh, and thanks a lot Tom Osborne, I no longer get to look forward to the KU/Nebraska game every year and giving Dan a bunch of shit for it. And we'll never get to take our kids to a KU/Nebraska game. Sad. Oh sure, maybe we'll end up with a few non-conference match ups, but it wont be the same. It won't mean anything. Stupid as it may be, I was sort of looking forward to 20-some years from now getting to take our kids to games in Lincoln, and before the game go to the bars I used to go to in college, and play the same teams we've always played. Now I'll have to take them to a fucking WISCONSIN game. Who cares?!

I am so depressed. And gawd, I cant even drink my sorrows away. Ugh ugh ugh ugh.

The one bright spot in my day is that we finally get to pick up the nursery furniture tonight. Yay! That room has been empty since we moved into the house almost 2 years ago just waiting to be able to fill it up with baby stuff, and I finally get to. I felt sort of stupid ordering the furniture as early as we did, somewhere around 14w. But they said it would take 12 weeks to come in, and it did. I officially hit 3rd tri on Monday and have been silently freaking out that the nursery is still empty. I know I still have 3 months, but dang, for some reason it suddenly feels like TOMORROW.

Oh, and had Bradley class #5 on Tuesday. It was all about 1st stage labor and what to expect during it. Probably the most helpful part was a chart that's included in the book that lists various common physical signs, emotional signs, behaviors, etc, for each part of 1st stage. Our instructor said that she's been able to tell where each of her doula clients was at in their labor based off of that chart. So we shall see how accurate it is.

One thing that was funny, is that when I was reading the "mindset" associated with each stage, I was totally comparing it to IM. First there's the excited "yay, this is it!" stage = right before the swim. The "lets get down to work" stage = during the swim and the first part of the bike. The "this is starting to be really hard and painful" stage = the last part of the bike. The "this is too hard, I dont think I can do it" stage = last half of the run. And the "I'm almost there, lets do it" stage = the last few miles of the run.

I know I keep thinking it, but there has GOT to be some sort of correlation. I literally thought that I was actually dying during a few of those miles in the last half of the run. Or more like I WISHED I was dying because that would have put me out of my misery. I kept plowing along through that, so yeah, I'm not too worried.

27w 4d.

Bradley Part 3 & 4

2010-05-27T16:01:00.002-05:00

Ok, the classes are starting to pick up, but still pretty general. Great information, and we're learning a lot, but still pretty general. Week 3 was just about general pregnancy stuff, week 4 was about the coach's role. Some highlights from the last 2 weeks:

- Experiencing mood swings? Eat a piece of fruit! This is where I really love our instructor, she's great about pointing out the parts of Bradley that she thinks are crap. She said Bradley apparently thinks that every pregnancy related malady is caused by some sort of nutritional deficiency, and fruit is the cure for mood swings. I'm pretty sure Dan would get punched in the throat if he told me to eat a piece of fruit when I'm having one of those days.

- A baby coming out of your vagina is a sign of pre-term labor. No shit.

- Analgesics are likely to just make you high and do nothing to help with the pain.

- Many of the medications commonly administered during labor are in the same family as cocaine.

Um, I think those are the main things. No, we really did go over quite a bit, nothing totally earth shattering though, but good to hear. And I know Dan has been a little skeptical of the whole natural birth thing, but he gets more and more on board every week with all the new information we get. Which is definitely good. He's all about doing things the old fashioned way, and you dont get much more old fashioned than that! Well, unless I wanted to go out and squat in a field and then come back in and churn out some butter.

Some other things of note:

- Holy woah! My feet do not like the "heat". It's been in the 80's for 4 days now, and they are about twice their normal size. It looks like I'm walking around on a couple of pork tenderloins. So much for being the cute pregnant lady walking around in sundresses and flip flops. Shrek feet dont really compliment the look.

- Mmmmm, pork tenderloin.

- It is virtually impossible for me to paint my toenails. I attempted it last night, and had to stop to catch my breath and reposition myself after every toe. Needless to say, I did not get a second coat on.

- Same goes for shaving. If it didnt mean I'd have to let it grow out, I'd just have Suzanne wax my legs while she's at it.

- LessthantwoweeksuntilthirdtrimesterandIdonthaveanythingdoneholyshit!

- Baby is getting a lot more active. I'm starting to be able to see movement from the outside now. Cool. But, weird.

- I think the dogs are starting to realize something is up, Penny won't eat unless I'm sitting right next to her.

25w 2d

Bradley, part 2

2010-05-17T13:54:00.003-05:00

Oops, I'm a week late. So last week was our second Bradley class. Dan was back in town for this one, so no more feeling like a teen mother. This one was about nutrition, and to be honest, I was half thinking of skipping it. If it hadn't been Dan's first class, we probably would have. I feel like I know what I need to know about good nutrition, so didn't really see the point in sitting through a 2 hour class. That is not to say I practice good nutrition all the time, but I do pretty well, and feel like I have a pretty firm grasp on it.

I'm glad we went though! I did learn a few things. The class focused around good nutrition during pregnancy, which is (or should be) obviously not the same as good nutrition when you are trying to lose weight/maintain weight/train for an event/etc. For instance, I did not know that a daily protein intake of at least 70g has been linked to a drastic reduction in your chances of developing pre-eclempsia. And pre-E is bad, if you develop it, they pretty much just make you deliver your baby right then and there. We dont want that. There is a whole slew of pregnancy maladies that proper nutrition can virtually eliminate, but that is the biggie.

Aside from the protein, they arent so much concerned with hitting a specific number for calories/fat/carbs/etc, but there is a list of stuff that I'm supposed to eat every day. Including:

4 servings of dairy
2 eggs
2 servings of leafy green vegetables
1 serving of other vetetables
4 servings of grain, one of which should be whole grain
1 vitamin C source
3 servings of healthy fats
1 serving of fruit

Huh. Not hard, and mostly in line with general nutrition guidelines, but takes some planning ahead. I have ALWAYS been bad about getting my fruits and veggies. I just dont do it. I like raw fruits and vegetables, I am just not nearly as good as I should be about eating them. And the eggs, I like eggs, but who eats 2 eggs a day? That one is going to take some work. I also LOATHE whole grain products. I know, i know, that is not the PC thing to say. You're supposed to think they are super delicious and taste better than white bread. But, they dont. So I will have to figure out a way to choke those down.

So, our assignment for the week (and Dan is supposed to do it too) was to keep track of everything we eat, with the main goal of getting enough protein. I have done this off and on over the years, but typically when I'm trying to lose weight or lean up (down?) or something. Through using several online sites, I've found that www.sparkpeople.com is the easiest to use. So I logged back on, and of course had to right away change my daily "goals". Last time I used it, my daily caloric intake was 1,600-1,850 cal/day. Yeah. That one got altered quite significantly.

I actually had no problem hitting the protein goal (except for Saturday, but lunch at the bar + baby shower food + BBQ does not really light up the ol' nutrition scale). Everything else, uh, not so much. To give myself credit though, I did buy some whole grain english muffins, and on Sunday made myself a breakfast sandwich. It would have been much better on a regular english muffin. But whole grain, yay! And egg, yay! And bacon, not so yay. But hell, I had to dress up that cardboard somehow.

24w

5 on Friday

2010-05-07T14:28:00.006-05:00

1. Confession: I love the Miley Cyrus song Party in the USA. I feel dirty now that I've said it out loud. But it's true, the radio always gets turned up when it comes on. Back in December my girlfriends and I had our annual sleepover (yes, grown women can still have slumber parties) and I discovered it's not just me! When that song came on, we ended up with an impromptu dance/karaoke party in the kitchen. Nothing better than a bunch of 20- and 30-something women dancing around in their pajamas singing Miley Cyrus songs. I know, it's every man's fantasy.

2. A while back, Nemmie passed along a recipe for a chopped salad. It's actually Ten Restaurant's signature salad. I have never eaten there, but if they came up with this salad, I might just have to. It is seriously my favorite thing to eat, I pretty much make it weekly during the summer. I dont know if it's the mustard vinaigrette, or the blue cheese (mmmm, blue cheese) or what. But I love it! I could eat it every day.

Make it. Eat it. Love it.

Nemmie's Chopped Salad (aka Ten Restaurant's Signature Salad)

Salad:
romaine lettuce, chopped (about half a head)
iceberg lettuce, chopped (about half a head)
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
4 green onions, sliced
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
penne, cooked and diced (not too much, about a handful of uncooked pasta)
blue cheese crumbles, to taste (I love blue cheese, so I dump in most of the container)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, grilled and diced (season with salt & pepper before grilling)

Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp water
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried oregano
dash black pepper
dash red pepper flakes

Mix all of the salad ingredients up! The mix all the vinaigrette ingredietns up, and pour it over the salad! Then mix it all up! Then eat it!

3. My dogs make me laugh every day. Sometimes they are a huge pain in the ass though. Having them around means the house is never clean. They have scratched the hell out of the hardwoods. Walter likes to occasionally mark his territory still....in the house. But even still, they make me laugh every day. The door that leads to the basement is all scratched up, because Wallter gets so excited to go in his crate that he tries to claw his way through the door whenever he knows it's time to get in his crate. The little ledge between the kitchen and family room is all scratched up because when Penny gets excited, she gets on the love seat next to it and paws at the ledge. I have had to give up my favorite blanket for snuggling up with on the couch because Max loves to snuggle with it more. The window frame in the living room is completely destroyed because all three of them go nuts and try to break through the window whenever somebody walks by. But how can I be mad about any of that?!

The previous owner of our house had installed a cat door from the family room to the garage. It is still there. And whenever I come home, if the dogs are out of their crates, the first thing I'm greeted with is Walter's head with his big googely eyes poking through the cat door to see who just pulled into the garage. And Max gets so excited to see you that he jumps in circles when you come home, and half the time damn near knocks himself out by slamming into the wall or the furniture in the process. And little Penny, she's so happy to see you that she practically starts hyperventilating, and she wont go out to potty until she has been petted by everyone. No person is ever that happy to see you.

They always make my day brighter, I cant imagine ever not having dogs in the house.
4. I have to work tomorrow morning, I really dont want to. I hate having to work on Saturdays. I only have to work about 3 Saturday's a year, but I still hate it.

5. However! I am happy just to have a job. This week, Gardner laid of basically their entire planning department. Which has made more than one planner in the metro a little nervous. If Garner was able to eliminate the entire department, what's to say that other municipalities won't soon follow suit?? Everyone is still having to trim their budgets, and since development is still slow, planning departments everywhere are not nearly as busy as usual. What's even more awesome, is that our 2011 budget is supposed to be approved at the end of July. So....if I were to get laid off, it would be about 6 weeks before I have the baby. Awesome. Just what I need to worry about. But, there's nothing I can do about it right now, so I'll just continue to keep myself as busy as possible and hope for the best.

Bradley, part 1

2010-05-05T10:24:00.003-05:00

So. I am planning to have a natural birth. No drugs, no epidural. For some reason, a lot of people feel really strongly one way or another about this issue. There is the group that thinks anyone who tries to give birth without drugs is a complete moron, and there is the group that thinks anyone who gets an epidural is an uneducated fool. Personally, I couldnt give two shits how someone else choses to have a baby, but being that so many people feel SO strongly one way or another, I kind of feel weird even discussing it with anyone.

A lot of people, when they first found out I was pregnant, were like "get the epidural! Dont try to be a hero!" Mmmm, ok. It kind of makes me scratch my head, because so many people seem to think that it's about trying to prove something. It's not. Next time I want to prove something to myself or to the world, I'll do another Ironman. Women have babies every day, that proves nothing. I've done a fair amount of research, and feel that for me PERSONALLY, it's just the best option. There are plenty of statistics and other evidence that led me to feel that way, which I wont even try to quote. But for me, it's just the way to go. I know a lot of women automatically go on the defensive once they hear that you are planning on a natural birth, I guess because they think you are judging them somehow. Trust me, I couldnt care less if have the doctor knock you completely out and reach up in there and pull the baby out.

So anyway, that was my little "disclaimer" before I get to the point. We decided to take Bradley classes, which are a 12 week course on preparing you and your partner for a natural childbirth. I wasnt 100% sold on the idea of committing myself to 12 weeks of classes, and honestly, it seemed a bit unnecessary. But when we met with our doula for the first time (I know, doula doula DOULA), she talked about how helpful they are, espeically for the husbands. I'm more of a "I'll research it and figure it out on my own" kinda gal, but Dan likes the structured learning environments. So he was actually the one who was more for it. Plus, I think he's a little trepidatious about the whole no drug thing. I think he, like a lot of people, are of the midset that doctors and modern medicine make EVERYTHING better. And while that may be true in most cases, there is something to be said for letting your body handle a natural process the way it was designed to. So I think some schoolin' will do him good.

Last night was our first class, and of course Dan is out of town for work. Of course he is. Let me tell you, going to a birth class by yourself makes you feel like a huge tool. I totally felt like a teen mother or something. Now, I had read kind of mixed reviews of Bradley classes, some people have ended up with instructors who are totally militant and all "doctors and hospitals are the devil!". So I was a little apprehensive going into it. I was half expecting to walk into the room and find it filled with a bunch of hippie weirdos. But alas! Everyone is normal! There are 4 other couples in the class, and everyone is totally normal and seems like people I would actually hang out with under normal circumstances. So that's good.

The class was 2 hours, and mainly just focused on introductions and a general background of the Bradley Method. I did learn something interesting. I know a lot of doctors have kind of mixed feelings on Bradley, and now I know why (at least for the doctors around here). Apparently, Gloria Squitiro, Mayor Funkhousers wife, used to be the only Bradley instructor in the area. When she said that, everyone was like "oh God, that explains everything". For those that dont live in KC, the Funk's wife is INSANE. Just google her. So yeah, having her associated with ANYTHING does not help.

After the introductions and background, we talked a little about the basis of Bradley, which is relaxation. Talked about how we can identify ways that have helped us to relax and deal with pain in the past, and went over a few basic exercises. The exercises are meant to help you just relax in general, as well as target specific areas of your body that you'll be using during labor and the birth. There was a lot of talk about how there ARE plenty of things we can do now and throughout the rest of the pregnancy, as well as during labor, to help the baby get into the correct position and to help the whole birth process along. Apparently, and I didnt know this either, you dont want the baby just head down. It should be head down and facing your back. And there are ways to coax the baby into that position.

So really, class 1 was pretty general, but did provide a lot of good info on exatly WHY we'll be learning what we do over the next 12 weeks. Hopefully Dan doesnt miss any more of them, becuase I have had my fill of flying solo at birth class. I feel really confident that I found a good instructor, one who is pretty mainstream and is not going to make us sit in a circle and sing Kumbayah while doing weird visualization exercises.

22w2d

No more McD's

2010-04-30T09:38:00.002-05:00

Last night after I got home and changed into my comfy clothes, I went to put on my Crocs (yes, I wear Crocs around the house, sue me) and noticed that my feet and ankles were swollen up like sausages. I had cankles. Oh. My. God. It's too early for this! I'm not even 22 weeks! And it's not summer yet! My feet cant be swelling already!! In a panic, I texted Courtney and she suggested that maybe I just need to start watching my sodium intake. Hmm. I did have McDonalds for lunch. Dammit. Now, I have been pretty good lately, it's not like a few months ago where all I wanted was fast food. But every now and then I just want something greasy. Guess I wont be doing that anymore!

And on top of the cankles, earlier this week I was complaining to my friend Nemmie about some pregnancy related aches and pains, and she said "maybe it's 'roids in your girl parts!" Wait. What!? No, that cant even be a real thing, you are mistaken, Miss Nems. So of course I had to google it, and let me just say that that is NOT something you should ever google. EVER. Suffice it to say, it is a real thing, and I am now scarred for life. Pretty certain that's not a problem for me just yet (and hopefully never), but Christ! They should warn you that it's even a possibility before you decide to get pregnant!

19 more weeks. 19 more weeks. I can make it 19 more weeks. I'm over half way, I'm on the donwhill slope. Oh shit, I have to take care of a baby in 19 weeks! Baby dogs I am good with. Baby humans, I really know nothing about. And here in a few months, I'm going to be expected to like, keep one alive and healthy, and stuff. There's got to be a class that will teach me everything I need to know, right? RIGHT?!?!

21w4d

Its a....

2010-04-22T09:15:00.015-05:00

Girl! Woah, I'm going to have a daughter. I'm sure she'll be all sweet and cute for the first few years, and then hate me until she's about 30. It's just the law of nature, it can't be helped. The ultrasound was really cool, baby was moving around quite a bit but not enough for me to feel. She must be going absolutely nuts when I am able to feel her! We got to see her do a somersault and suck her thumb, so that was neat.

Here she is with her foot up in her face, about to poke her eyes out with her toes:

Speaking of feet, check out the big gap between her big toe and her second toe! She definitely gets that from me, I have freaking lobster claws:

Here's a shot of her legs all stretched out with her ankles crossed. She's got her arm resting on top of her leg. Long arms!

....Long arms and big hands. This is looking down from the top, she's got her little (big) hand up in front of her face. Those are some basketball playing hands! Dan is so proud.

And just as a comparison, here are her hands at 13 weeks. She's done a lot of growing in the last 7 weeks!

Here she is the first time we saw her at 6 weeks, just a tiny, indiscernable bean with a flicker of a heartbeat. So amazing that she has turned into an actual PERSON in such a short amount of time!

That tiny gray blob that the arrow in the middle is pointing to? That's the baby.

Let the pink shopping frenzy begin!

20w3d

Half Baked

2010-04-20T08:58:00.011-05:00

Halfway there! Halfway there! Man, I cant believe this kid is already halfway done baking. If this were a marathon, I'd be past mile 13. Except, in a few miles I'd start hurting really bad and crying and wishing for death. So, uh, lets not compare this to a marathon. Because if the first part of pregnancy was the best part, then I am in for a world of hurt. So lets just nix that comparison.

The belly is definitley growing-

Aside from the ever expanding waistline (and still NON-expanding boobs, WTF), there still isnt a whole lot going on. I did start work on the nursery by getting it primed and the trim painted. I know priming isnt all that exciting, but if you saw this room before I did it, you just might be excited afterall. For some reason, I had decided after we moved in that I should paint the room red. We're talking bright, Husker red. Except, painting a room red takes about 500 coats, and I got fed up after 4. So it never really looked very good. Plus, I made a mess of all the trim in the process, so there were red smears all over the trim. Awesome. Oh, and the woman who owned this house before us had touched up the trim using about 5 different shades of white, all in a flat finish. Who uses flat paint for trim?? Also, she didnt actually use WHITE, it was more of a yellowish, antiquey-white color. Barf. This is before I did the trim, so you can see how yellow it looks:

You can see Ashley's house out the window. Hi Ashley!

Ah, much brighter. Also note the new windows! Eh, they really dont look any different than the old ones, except for the fact that they aren't rotting apart.

Annnndddddd......we should find out boy or girl tomorrow! Yay!

5 on Friday

2010-04-16T16:21:00.002-05:00

Well it seems that these "5 on Friday" posts are pretty popular in the blog world, and since I apparently need every motivation I can find to post, I will jump on the bandwagon.

1. Did you know that being pregnant makes it hard to pee? True story. I had always heard that you have to pee a lot when you're pregnant, and you do, but it turns out it's because you cant empty your fucking bladder. I go to pee, and barely anything comes out. So when I get up, I still have to go. WTF. I am going to start wearing Depends so I can just go whenever I want instead of having to run to the bathroom only for nothing to happen.

2. I miss beer. I think I miss it more than wine.

3. When I was driving back to work after lunch today, I was in the turn lane to make a right hand turn, there was a green right hand turn arrow, and the person in front of me had to do a granny roll through the entire turn. Dude, you are driving an Infiniti G35, I'm pretty sure it can handle turns better than the Element, we dont need to slow to 2mph. And when I passed you 3 seconds later, it was clear that you were not an 85 year old woman with bifocals, so there is no excuse. I HATE people that do this! Seriously, I spend half of the time I'm driving having road rage. If I ever mention wanting to get a concealed carry license, please stop me, because I'm sure it would end in me getting into some sort of shoot out over someone driving too slow.

4. I was in BRU the other day, I went on my afternoon off to avoid the cluster it becomes on the weekends. Plus, it is out at 135th & 69, and it is just best that I avoid that area during heavy traffic times for the above mentioned reason. Well apparently every stay-at-home mom in JoCo had decided it was a good time for a trip to the ol' baby supply store, so there were women and babies EVERYWHERE. Which was fine, until one baby started crying, which made another one cry, which made another one cry....you get the idea. I about had a stroke, and it cut short my perusing through the cute teeny tiny baby clothes. I dont know if I'm ready for my own screaming kid. I have a lot of patience for my dogs, I just hope that transfers to the baby.

5. I am so happy it's finally SPRING. I feel like I've been in such a funky mood lately, and I'm sure it's because I've been a shut-in basically since Christmas. This weather makes me actually WANT to get outside and do something instead of laying on the couch watching Criminal Minds reruns all night.

Hooray for the weekend!
19w4d

2010-04-09T15:28:00.003-05:00

I had a doctors appointment today, and for the first time in my life they had to move the BIG slider on the scale. Yup, officially passed the 150 lb mark. Oh well, that mean's baby is growing and getting bigger. Although, if you look at any of the pregnancy weight gain charts, they all say I'm gaining too much weight too fast. Those charts can kiss my ass.

Baby is about the size of a potato, and the big news for the week is that I can finally feel it moving! Everything I've read says that they already have a sleep/awake pattern established, and it figures that my kid would sleep all day and be up all night. I feel it the most in the evening, and whenever I wake up in the middle of the night I can always feel it. Although, if I jiggle my belly during the day, it wakes up and starts moving. Ha! Wake up kid, we're going to start work NOW on getting you on an acceptable sleep schedule. You always hear that the first movements feel like flutters or bubbles popping or whatever. I think it feels more like I have a giant tapeworm crawling around in there. Not that I would know what a tapeworm feels like. Whatever it is though, had a nice healthy HB of 150 today though, so right on track

Last weekend I was reminded again of why men arent the ones who get pregnant. We were headed up to Omaha, and as we were driving through St. Joe Dan asked if I wanted to stop at this bar that one of his friends owns and have a drink. Um, no thanks? The man honestly forgot that his wife was pregnant. So you know if they were the ones to get pregnant, they'd forget about it until they were 3 beers in and then realize "Oh shit!!!"

Only 12 more days till we get to find out! I still say girl, we'll see if I'm right. Although, the only baby dream I've had so far involved me getting an u/s and the tech pointing out the boy bits. So really, I won'tbe surprised either way.

18w4d

What they don't tell you

2010-03-26T16:02:00.003-05:00

In browsing various pregnancy forums, I have learned one main thing. There are a lot of dumb as shit women out there. (no, riding a bike will not "give you an abortion". Yes, your baby is alive even though it is not breathing air while it is inside you). My friend Jules and I have had numerous (drunken, sitting by the pool) converstaions trying to decide if people are really just that stupid, or if we are just that smart. Because lets face it, everywhere you go, someone is always making you wonder how they manage to function. And apparently, pregnancy bring the morons out of the woodwork. Gives a bad name to pregnant women and moms, if you ask me.

But aside from being shocked at peoples' intelligence levels, I am almost more shocked about all of the "OMG I DIDNT KNOW THIS WOULD HAPPEN" comments you see. Yes, being pregnant makes you fat. Yes, being pregnant makes your skin freak out. Yes, being pregnant makes you moody. Yes, being pregnant makes you tired. Yes, being pregnant makes you constipated. Yes, being pregnant can make hair grow on your stomach. Yes, the baby has to come out of THERE. No, your husand does not give two shits about what kind of bottles you register for. Seriously, do you people not have friends, or mothers? Because, uh, if you have ever met anyone who has been pregnant, you have heard all of this stuff.

The thing that nobody ever really tells you though, is that being pregnant is boring. There just isnt much going on. Every day at least one person asks me how I'm feeling or how things are going, and I usually answer with "fine", and they keep looking at me expectantly like I am going to have something to add. I dont know what people want me to say. "Oh I'm doing great, peed 6 times between the time I got to work and lunch, my belly is getting strangely fuzzy, got winded walking up the stairs last night, and I officially can't button any of my pants". Do they want to hear that? Probably not. Just like when they ask how a race went, they dont want to hear "well I pissed myself at mile 12, had to make an emergency stop at a port-a-john at mile 16 so I wouldnt shit my pants, and had a blood blister pop at mile 22". It's just stuff that nobody wants to know.

Speaking of marathons, I actually got a little teary eyed when I got the notification the other day that Chicago has filled up for this year. Yes, I'm thrilled to be pregnant, and duh, I didnt expect to be running a marathon a month after I have the kid, and yes, it will still be there next year. But after I did it last year, I sort of got it in my head that I was going to do it again this year. So it just made me a little sad thinking about not doing it.

Thats another thing that nobody tells you about being pregnant; that you will start to feel like you are missing out on stuff, and that it's NORMAL. But nobody ever tells you that, because, well, I dont know why. You're just sent the message that you are supposed to be 100% overjoyed about the prospect of being pregnant and having a kid, and any thought otherwise means that you are going to be a shitty shitty parent. So then when you DO start feeling kind of bummed about not being able to do this or that, you start feeling totally guilty for thinking that way in the first place. But, everybody says that being a parent means that you are in for a lifetime of feeling guilty about SOMETHING, so I guess this is a good start!

And on the topic of missing out on things, the other day I was thinking about the fact that summer is fast approaching, and that we live close to the Prairie Village pool. What's nice about that? They have an adults only pool! Yeah! We can go there and avoid all the kids at our neighborhood pool, and sneak in booze in plastic water bottles! For a minute there I honestly forgot that a) there will be no laying by the pool getting drunk for me this summer, and b) from here on out I am going to be one of THOSE people who takes their kid to the pool. Woah, man. Reality check.

16w4d

Car shopping, Hurley style

2010-03-11T14:41:00.004-06:00

Those of you that know me know that Dan likes cars. As in, likes to get a different one every year or so. It's a disease. He has a spreadsheet of all the cars he's owned in his life, I saw it once, I think there are close to, if not more than, 40 on there. And for someone that is 39.....yeaaaahhh. He has slowed down a bit in the last few years though, he's only had 3 different cars since we started dating in 2005. And 4 motorcycles, but I digress.

I have been saying for a couple of years that "this is it! No more cars!", but now I mean it. I dont know, somehow it just doesnt seem very responsible to be trading cars like they are freaking baseball cards when you have a kid. Call me old fashioned. His latest car was a PT Cruiser, which I HATED, and may or may not have made fun of him relentlessly for driving. And my friends may or may not have gotten in on the action. But in all practicality, it's a pretty small car, and with 3 dogs and a new baby, I just thought we might want something bigger. Especially since I'd like to be able to keep a car for a while and use it when we have a second kid. Two kids and three dogs in a PT was DEFINITELY not going to work.

So here is what happens when someone like that marries someone like me who is all "I need immediate gratification, stop hem hawing, just do it NOW!":

Julie: so, I think we should trade the PT in on something bigger.
Dan: How about a Crown Victoria? (WTF?)
Julie: Um no, how about a Pilot?
Dan: OK
Spend a few days finding links to used Pilots
Julie: Want to go look at this one?
Dan: Sure. Tonight?
Go testdrive Pilot, be underwhelmed.
Salesman: Well if you like Pilots, you'll love the CX-9. Want to drive one?(we were at a Mazda dealer)
Dan: OK
Julie: OK
Testdrive CX-9
Julie: Wow, I really like it!
Dan: Me too!
Julie: Want to get it?
Dan: OK.

And that is how car shopping goes in the Hurley household. Although to be fair, it DID stretch into two days, because the first night we went to look, the banks were closed by the time we were ready to talk numbers. So we had to deal with all that the next day. At least we slept on it.

14w3d

Its a....

2010-03-08T09:02:00.004-06:00

Baby! Yep, definitely a baby in there. I had an ultrasound last week at 13w1d (13weeks 1day, for those of you not up on the pregnancy lingo) to check for certain birth defects. It's called an Ultra Screen (or 1st Tri screen, or NT scan) and includes a blood test. Then they plug in the measurements they took on the ultrasound and the results of the blood test and your age into some program, and it spits out the probability of your baby having Down Syndrome and a few other chromosonal defects. It's optional testing, though I think most doctors recommend it if you're over 35. I'm not, but since I'm adopted and dont know any family medical history, figured it would be a good idea. Ok I'm lying, I just wanted an excuse to see the baby. Because even though I KNOW I'm pregnant, and my doctor had found the HB with a doppler at my last appointment, and I had an ultrasound at 6 weeks and saw the little flickering blob in there, and have been feeling like death....I still didnt really believe it. In my warped mind the blob we saw at the last ultrasound could have been some sort of tumor, and the HB I heard could have been mine. Granted, it was 176 bpm, but hey, that is a pretty normal running HR for me, so not out of the question. Except, I wasnt running at the time. But still! You never know. Anywho, here is the little bugger:

See, definitely a baby. Not a tumor. She was wiggling around all over the place and getting pissed when the doctor jiggled my belly (like a bowl full of jelly. Har) to get her to switch positions so he could get the measurements he needed. And I am calling it a her, even though we obviously dont know yet. I just think of it as a girl, and I dont like calling the baby IT. Conjures up images of scary clowns. And with the u/s picture already making the baby look like Skeletor, I dont need to think of scary clowns too. I truly, truly dont care what it is. Dan on the other hand, is hoping its a boy. But doesnt every guy? I keep telling him that he's so scared of having a girl that that's what we'll end up with for sure. And on that note, I made my appointment for the BIG ultrasound, so we should get to find out on April 21. Not too much longer!

Other than that, things are good. I'm officially in my 2nd trimester, and starting to feel better. Still feeling pretty crappy first thing in the morning and at night, but much more functional during the day. And, it's starting to get nice out, which is giving me the itch to go run. One of these nights I'll have to give it a whirl....if any of my running shorts still fit, that is.

It's the small things

2010-02-22T15:47:00.004-06:00

Last week was more of the same, laying around the house and eating out. On Friday we headed out to Pennsylvania to visit my sister-in-law and her husband. She moved out there before we even got married, and we still hadn't been to visit. Oops! They are also getting ready to put their house on the market, so between that and and the baby, we figured we had better get out there. Plus, we found out last Monday that she is also pregnant and due about 3 weeks after me. So our wee one will have a cousin the same age. Fun!

On Saturday we went up to Hershey, and while you might think that the CHOCOLATE was the highlight of the trip (especially for a pregnant chick), it wasnt! Nope, it was these too cute for words, tiny, single serving ketchup bottles at the Hotel Hershey!

I need to figure out where to get them and buy a stash. I love tiny, miniature things. Like those teeny tiny binder clips. You know, the ones that only go around like 10 sheets of paper. Those are the best. So anyway, if you happen to know where to get those tiny ketchup bottles, LET ME KNOW!

Sunday before our flight left we hung out in downtown Baltimore, and had a late lunch at a great little Italian place. When we walked down by the harbor after that, I made the mistake of setting my to-go box down on a bench, and this seagull decided to try to get into it. I guess I cant blame him.

Sunday happened to be a really nice day out there and there were TONS of people out for a run down around the harbor. That, and just being by the open water made me want to do a race BAD. Ah, nothing beats jumping into a big body of open water and taking off on a swim with a pack of other people. So I was all "dude, I could totally do a race at the end of May, I wont even be 30 weeks, and I shouldnt be too big yet". Right about then I bloated up so bad I thought my stomach was going to burst and my head started pounding and I realized I was EXHAUSTED from a weekend of eating and driving around....and a 15 minute walk. So that killed my race fantasy. But man, I cant wait until next year! And yeah, I'm smart enough to know that racing while one is pregnant, especially if said person has been a total lazy-ass for the last 3 months, probably isnt advisable. But there is nothing like knowing that you CANT do something to make you really, really want to.

So that was the excitement of the weekend. We missed out on some sleet here, and for some reason our plane was delayed leaving from Baltimore because KCI had run out of de-icer. Not really sure why that matters when you are landing, but mmkay.

My goal for this week is to make dinner 3 times, and by "make dinner" I mean MAKE DINNER, not fish sticks and fries. Cooking just really holds no appeal to me right now, which is weird, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm not dead

2010-02-12T11:54:00.002-06:00

I know, again with the lack of blogging. But I have been doing stuff. Since I started this blog as a training blog when I was getting ready for IMFL, blogging about anything less than IM or marathon training seems kind of....pointless. With the three marathons last year, I was able to have SOMETHING to blog about, even though it was never as consuming as IM training. I DO want to keep blogging, I just need to reconcile myself to the fact that it may not always be about an 18 mile run followed up by an 80 mile ride. And if you are OK with that, so am I.

So, if you get bored with the direction I decide to take, I apologize in advance. But, I wont be writing too much about any awesome training adventures or races this year. In fact, I wont be doing any races at all. But I do have something pretty exciting (at least I think it's pretty exciting) planned for Labor Day, or thereabouts. Yup, we're adding to the family, and no, it's not another dog. This addition will be of the baby human variety.

As of today, I am 10 and a half weeks pregnant (and no I have not announced it at work, so keep your mouth shut you know who you are), so I have about 30 to go. So far, pregnancy has been "interesting". I always swore I would never be one of those pregnant women who ate junk every day and sat on their ass watching TV. But sadly, thats what I have been doing most of the time. I swear I dont want to though! But when your "morning sickness" lasts all day, and you are doing good to keep your eyes open past about 2pm, thats what happens. The closest thing I can think of to compare morning sickness to is a hangover without the headache, and it's been with me for about the last 4 weeks straight. They tell me it's supposed to subside when you get into your second trimester, so I've got another 3 weeks to tough it out. And really, I HAVE been feeling better, the last week or so I kind of get a break during the middle of the day. So Dan probably thinks I'm a total faker since all I do at home is laying the couch but manage to function at work.

And I'm not ashamed to admit that so far I've gained about 8 lbs, which can no doubt be attributed to the fact that my body has decided all it wants to eat are McDonalds french fries and chocolate shakes. Oh, and lets not forget the complete and total lack of exercise the last 2 months. I have become one of THOSE pregnant women. Yuck! But, once I stop feeling like I'm going to hurl every time I stand up, I plan to get back at it. Of course I realize I wont be out running any marathons in the next few months, but I'd at least like to keep SOME of my fitness this year. And pregnant or not, I'm just not used to being sedentary this long (and eating this much fast food), so it will feel amazing to get moving again.

So! I dont plan to turn this into a total pregnancy or baby blog, but that will probably start occupying a lot of it. Hopefully pretty soon I can start talking about the fun of trying to run with a passenger, and next year move on to the adventures of dragging along my child AND husband to some races. Should be fun :)

2 Years

2009-11-03T09:11:00.013-06:00

2 years ago, I was about 50 minutes into the bike portion of IMFL feeling like I was going to die. I had major stomach issues after that swim, and the first 12 miles of the bike royally sucked. But I did it! Man, I cant believe it's been 2 years already. In some ways it feels like a lot longer, and in some ways it feels like I just did it.

I just got done reading my recap and boy, does it make me want to do another one. I will, just probably not anytime in the near future. The next time I do it, I will be better. Just like the next marathon I do, I will be better. So I've got a lot of work to do!

Speaking of that, I've been doing good with getting myself to the gym, and last night I did my first interval workout on the treadmill. I only did 4 quarter mile repeats, but I did them at a sub 8:30 pace, and I didnt die, so that is a good thing! I'll get that sub 30 minute 5K, then we'll work on a sub 60 minute 10K. Right now my half marathon PR is about 2:35, so I'll have to assess things and figure out a new goal for that. And we all know what my marathon goal is. All in good time!

So, since IMFL, here is what has kept me occupied:

- I took a year off to be fat and lazy

- I got laid off, and spent 4 months getting caught on my Soaps instead of taking advantage of the time off and training. The only productive thing I did was paint the kitchen cabinets.

- My sister in law got married in Colorado

- We sold our old house (in 3 days, I might add) and bought a new one

- I turned 30

- Courtney got married

- I hosted a fetus party (baby shower) for my friend Julie

- I got to touch Chrissie Wellington

- I did 3 marathons

- I did a grand total of 2 tris, including HyVee

So, I guess I've kept busy enough.

Lets ban slow people from running!

2009-10-23T16:33:00.002-05:00

Earlier today, a friend of mine from RE forwarded me the link to this article in the NY Times discussing "plodders" doing marathons:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/sports/23marathon.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=marathon&st=cse

Ironically, she sent it to me about an hour after Dan sent me this article about the woman who was proud to be DFL at last week's KC Marathon:
http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1524835.html

Both ends of the spectrum there! First off, I am a slow runner. I think we have established that by now. When I first started running, I was sort of embarassed about it. And it was for exactly the elitist attitude that is displayed in the first article. But I quickly got over it. Because I enjoy doing it, and it makes me feel good, and I'm proud of myself for getting out there and doing it instead of sitting at home on my ass watching 90210 reruns every Saturday morning. Not that I havent thought many a time that I would rather do that!

Yes, I would like to get faster. But "faster" for me is not the same as "faster" for you, or for anybody else. For me, it means being able to run a sub-30 5K and a sub-5 hour marathon. Those are MY goals. There are always going to be people, like those quoted in the NYT article, who will think that those time goals are totally lame and that I'm not a REAL runner. Well, pardon my French, but they can fuck off. The thing is, no matter how good you are at something, somebody will always be better. And VERY few people are born with such natural talent that they just start off being an amazing athlete. Everybody has to work at it. And just because some of us have to work really hard to get under 5 hours in a marathon doesne make our efforts any less valid than people who have to work really hard to get under 3 hours in a marathon. So, whatever.

Thankfull, I have encountered very few people who are so enamored with themselves that they look down on anybody else's pace or ability. And really, if you have to look down your nose at what other people are doing, doesnt that sort of take the joy out of what YOU are doing? I think it must. So tomorrow morning I'll go out and run 6 or 8 miles at a nice 11:40 pace and go home feeling good about what I just did, and then sit on my ass and watch football. Sounds like a perfect Saturday to me!

Speaking of which, I have to be pace group leader tomorrow morning because Kristi is out of town....and we're going to Ponaks tonight. I learned early on that mexican food on Friday night + Saturday morning run = bad idea, but here I go. We were invited out, and I cant turn down Ponaks! That's sacrelig. Or maybe I just like to punish myself.

I'm actually looking forward to running, I havent run since Chicago and I'm ready to get back out. Well, I did go to the gym a couple of times this week (which felt great) and one of those times I got on the treadmill after I lifted with the intention of jogging for 20 minutes. That turned into a 10 minute jog because my legs were toast. Woooo boy, were my legs tired. I dont know if it was still from the marathon, or from lifting again for the first time in a couple of months. Probably a combo of both. But, it was a good week, and I'm excited to get back to running and get back in the gym.

Go faster

2009-10-21T14:49:00.004-05:00

I was just catching up on some blogs, and a paragraph in Liz Fefofsky's blog stuck out at me:

The best long course athletes come from short course backgrounds. Speed & technique before endurance. Why? It is much easier to make the neuromuscular changes required for good biomechanics/form when you are working on shorter distances. The more you can hold form over longer distances, the more efficient you will be, the faster you can go. Want to stay at the same slow speed? Shuffle a marathon year after year.

Hmm. Uh, yeah, that would be me, shuffling a marathon year after year. And I wonder why I'm not really getting faster. I don't mind putting in long runs. In fact, I kind of enjoy it. But I hate, HATE doing speed work. I also have convinced myself that it is a waste of money to do any races shorter than a half marathon. Sigh. For a reasonably intelligent person I can be pretty dense sometimes.

So. What am I gonna do about it? Well for one thing, I really do need to be doing some shorter races. 10Ks would be good. Also, and I know I have been saying it for-ev-er, but I need to get back to some strength training. In looking at pictures of myself at races several years ago back when I WAS doing strength training, I had much better form. Here I am at my first ever tri back in 2004.

Look, I'm actually striding out! Suffice it to say, I do not look like that in any pictures from more recent races, and I know it's because I'm weaker. Weak body = poor form = slow times.

And I know I've been saying this one for a while now too, but I really need to drop 10 lbs or so. It's not even an question any more, if I am going to get a faster marathon time, I NEED to do it. It was all so much easier when I was single and spent 2 hours a day at the gym and basically ate nothing but chicken and rice and green beans! Because here's the thing, cooking for just yourself is boring. So it was just easier to have a pretty basic, clean diet. But I do love to cook, and in the last 3 years that I've been married, I've been doing a lot of it. I try to make pretty healthy foods, but it ain't chicken and rice and green beans. I think my biggest problem is portion control, I don't exactly need to eat as much as Dan eats.

So! Here is my plan.

I am not going to do a spring or summer marathon next year. I wont have the time to work on speed if I have to start ramping up my mileage right away after the first of the year.

I will do a fall marathon, and really, I'd love to do Chicago again.

I will do a spring half marathon, maybe Olathe again, and PR there.

I will also do at least 2 5ks and 2 10ks by the end of the spring session of RE. Right now I couldnt even tell you what my PRs for those distances are, as I cant remember the last time I've run one.

I will sign up for the spring RE speed sessions.

And by God, I will lose 10 lbs!

It's fun to just have to worry about going far. But, I think it will be even more fun to go far, faster!

Chuck Norris never ran the Chicago Marathon

2009-10-13T13:15:00.006-05:00

I did not make 5 hours. It wasn’t for lack of trying, it just wasn’t in the cards. Which is kind of a bummer. But then I realize that I DID PR by 8 minutes, which is certainly nothing to be bummed about. Actually, it’s really kind of hard to be bummed about much of anything when you think “hey, I just finished a marathon!” I really hate people that get so competitive with themselves or other people that if they don’t meet a goal, they act like the whole experience was a waste of time. Because it’s never a waste of time.

So anyway, we rolled in to Chi-town Friday evening. We were staying with some friends up in Glencoe, which was really convenient and nice not having to pay for a hotel downtown. Friday night was pretty low key for me, Dan and his friend Heath on the other hand were up until 3 playing Golden Tee and doing shots of Patron. I was woken up around 5:30 by Dan sleepwalking, throwing a pillow at me and trying to find the bathroom, and he was still drunk when I got up at 8:30. I’ll cut him some slack though since Friday WAS his birthday. I’d need to drown my sorrows in Patron too if I were turning 39. Haha! Almost 40 :)

Saturday we watched the KU game and then drove downtown to packet pickup. I have never seen such a huge setup for a race expo before, it was crazy! We caught the tail end of it though, so I didn’t have to stand in line or fight any crowds, which was nice. Saturday night was another low key night, just dinner in and then early bed time for me.

The thing I had the most trouble with in getting ready for this race was deciding what to wear. It was COLD. Not chilly, as in its 50 degrees out, cold as in its 30 degrees and people are wearing winter coats. Luckily I brought a pretty wide assortment of clothing options. What I ended up going with was a short sleeve shirt, and 3 long sleeved layers on top of it. Then I wore some old pants over my running shorts, along with a head band and gloves. I had planned to wear my pants right up until I crossed the start line, but ended up taking them off before I even got into the starting corral because my top layers were keeping me warm enough.

Once I made my way into the starting corral, I positioned myself behind the 11:00 min/mile sign. I talked to a guy from Lawrence who was wearing a Turkey Trot shirt from a few years ago, as well as a whole bunch of other people standing around. We were so far back, we couldn’t even see the starting line. When the gun went off, it was like a clothes hamper had exploded. People started throwing shirts and jackets and pants everywhere! Dan was standing along the side somewhere, and a pair of pants in my size actually landed on him, so he stuffed them in his backpack for me. Ha! It took a while for us to start moving, and once we did it was lots of “walk a few steps, stop, walk a few steps, stop”. I had expected that with a race this big, so it was fine. There was so much clothing on the ground though, and NICE stuff. Adidas and Nike technical jackets, pants, etc. Looking at my results, it took me about 17 minutes to reach the start line, which really isn’t bad at all.

After I got going, it was just one huge mass of humanity. I normally really hate crowds, and it was definitely crowded, but not so bad that you had no room to move or people were constantly bumping into you. So it was actually really enjoyable. Almost right away we went through an underpass that was over a block long, so my Garmin lost reception for a couple minutes and threw off my readings for the rest of the race. Oh well.

The first several miles were all through the streets of downtown, and they were just PACKED with spectators. It was so cool, I’ve never experienced anything like it. This whole way, people were still shedding clothes left and right. After about the first mile or two, I started getting warm and decided to take off my top 2 layers. Let me tell you, the homeless people in Chicago cleaned up on Sunday. There were so many clothes being tossed aside, I guarantee they all are being put to good use.

The first few miles ticked by so fast, but I was making sure to stay on my target pace and not speed up with all of the adrenaline. It was hard to do, because it was all so exciting! Another funny thing while we were in the middle of downtown, I have never seen so many guys pulling off and taking a piss on the side of the course! Every alley we passed was lined with guys peeing on the side of buildings. Oh, to have it so easy.

I hit the 5K point in 36 minutes, which was just about right for my target pace. I was feeling great, the weather was perfect for running, there were tons of spectators, and I was trying to just soak it all in. I hit the 10K point at 1:12, which again was just about right for me. We headed north through Lincoln Park, then turned west for a couple of blocks before heading back south. Now, I love Chicago, but I don’t know too much about the specific neighborhoods though. But this was most definitely the gay neighborhood because there were tons of tranny and cross-dressing cheering sections. Ha! I loved it! You don’t get that everywhere!

I was still chugging along, feeling great. Hit 15K at 1:47 and 20K at 2:22. Right around that 20K mark Dan spotted me and yelled my name, and I managed to see him for a second as I ran by. I think I was in the middle of eating a pouch of sport beans at the moment. We turned west right before we hit the halfway point, and I about died when I heard what song was playing as I came up on it. They had some huge speakers set up right by the 13.1 mile clock, and they were playing….the Nebraska tunnel walk song! I know Nebraska isn’t the only team that uses it, but talk about motivational!

The part of the course where we headed west was probably the most boring and had the fewest spectators, but the streets were still lined with people. They just weren’t necessarily 10 deep like they were when we were downtown. Whenever we made a turn and headed back towards downtown, I kept my eye on the Sears Tower (I know it’s not technically called that anymore) to try and judge how far out we were. Right about here is when it started feeling like I had a LONG way left to go. Up until this point I had been doing really well with only walking through the aid stations long enough to drink, but I was starting to take longer walk breaks. I was still feeling OK, but my knees and hips were getting really tight.

I hit 30K at 3:40, and according to the text update that Courtney got, I was still on pace to finish in 5:10. That’s when things went downhill. And looking at the course map now, I can almost pinpoint exactly where things started getting really painful.

A few weeks ago, I had been talking with some people during a Saturday run about how marathons are so hard because they are mentally tough, and they don’t really HURT, they are just uncomfortable, but that you start thinking that it WILL hurt and that’s when things get bad. I had been telling myself the whole race that that was the case, it wasn’t going to hurt, it might be uncomfortable, but it was nothing that was going to kill me. Well let me tell you right now, that is just a lie that runners tell themselves in order to get to the starting line of another marathon. Because that shit HURTS! I have a pretty high pain tolerance, and I was hurting. Bad.

My knee was getting really painful, but almost the worst part was my groin muscles were getting really tight, which was making my whole torso hurt. My abs still hurt today. I was trying to stay positive, but I was definitely at that “IhaterunningandIamneverdoingthisfuckingshiteveragain!” point. So, the last 8 miles or so I spent a lot of time walking and being pissed at myself for thinking a marathon was a good idea. But everyone else around me was obviously in the same boat, so that did help some. I wanted to stop and lay down more than I’ve ever wanted anything, but every aid station had a “runner drop out” tent and I’ll be damned if I was going to use one of them. So, slowly and painfully I just kept going. I obviously wasn’t going to make 5 hours, but I really didn’t care.

FINALLY we turned back north and we had less than 3 miles left at that point. 3 miles really isn’t a lot, but it sure feels like it when you are at mile 23. Around mile 25 I saw something that actually did make me laugh out loud. A guy was standing on the side of the road, cigarette in one hand, the other hand holding out 2 cans of Miller High Life. Ha! I doubt that anybody took him up on it, but it was pretty funny at the time. If I hadn’t been hating life so much right about then, I might have grabbed one just for the comic factor of crossing the finish line with a can of High Life.

When I finally made it to the “1 mile left” sign, I was determined to run the rest of the way in. It was more of a limp/shuffle, but I like to tell myself that it looked better than walking. Finish lines are always sort of anti-climactic for me, but it sure did feel good to cross it! The finish chute was so long, I didn’t think I’d ever make it out of there. First they had people there to give you a foil blanket, which was good because as soon as I stopped moving I was cold. It was still about 40 degrees, afterall. Then they had people handing out medals. Then were the people to cut your chip off. Then were the tables with Gatorade, then water, then bananas. All they had were bananas! Not that I felt like eating anyway, but come on, give me something besides a freaking banana. Then they had free beer, which I DID take. Yum! Too bad that holding my beer meant I couldn’t keep my blanket around me, and it was too cold for that, so I just had to drink as much as I could and then ditch it. I wanted to sit down so bad, but they made everyone keep moving through the finish area. I swear, finally about a mile later I was out of it and was able to get to the runner reunite area to find Dan.

After I found him, one of the first things I said was “I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking, but I am not doing KC!” Ha! Um, yeah, so about that. I would still like to run KC this weekend. But my body is laughing at me saying “you dumbass, that is the stupidest idea you have ever had, there is no way you are running 2 marathons in 7 days”. I know enough to listen to my body or else I’ll just tear myself up, so I will be sitting it out. I know a lot of people running it though, so I’ll just go cheer.

So once I got some warm clothes on and sat down for a bit, we went and met up with our friends Tyler and Amy who had moved up to Chicago last year. Tyler ran it too, and finished in 4:10. We walked around a bit looking for a place to eat, and we were GOING to go to Chipotle, but for some reason that my brain cannot comprehend, the Chipotles in downtown Chicago are closed on Sundays! WTF?! Come on now, it’s not like downtown KC that it completely deserted on the weekends. But I guess they lose enough business to not make it worth it. But they could have cleaned up this weekend with all of the marathoners! What goes better after a marathon than an 1100 calorie burrito!? NOTHING! So anyway, we found some food, and then Dan and I headed up back to our friends’ house in Glencoe.

My finish time ended up being 5:36, which yes, is a little disappointing, especially considering I was pretty close to my goal pace up through the 30K point. But like I said, it’s hard to be disappointed at all when you finished the damn thing, regardless of the time. I absolutely LOVED this race, and will most definitely be running it again. I could even make this a yearly thing. So maybe I’ll be back for 2010!

Really??

2009-10-08T15:41:00.002-05:00

I would never wish for the heat they've had for Chicago the last 2 years, but come on now. Below freezing?!?!?! People! I know it has been a mild summer, but I am not ready to run in 30 degree temps yet. Oh well, I have run in much worse. The trick will just be staying warm before the race starts. I typically warm up pretty fast, so I guess I'll just have to wear lots of layers that I dont mind tossing. Thanks to our own personal Runners Edge meterologist (aka Brett Anthony), we've got a pretty good forecast for the race:

Time Temperature Wind Precipitation
7:30am 30 degrees, mostly clear West 10-15 mph None
10:00am 36 degrees, sunny West 10-15 mph None
Noon 41 degress, sunny West 13-18 mph None
1:30pm 43 degrees, sunny West 13-18 mph None

I'm shooting for 5 hours, so factor in a good 30 minutes for me to actually make it to the starting line once the gun goes off, I should finish around 1. Lets split the difference and say it will be 42 degrees. Awesome. Dan had better bundle up. Or find a bar that's open early. I have a feeling he'll be doing the latter.

If hard work pays off, the easy work is worthless

2009-09-16T14:50:00.003-05:00

I know I havent posted in a while, but things have been pretty uneventful. And, I'm almost afraid I'll jinx it if I talk about it, but damn, things have really been clicking! All of my runs have felt awesome.

A couple of weekends ago I had a 20-miler that turned into a 19-miler and left me with some sore hips and blistered feet. But, that was because I had accidentally worn my old, worn out shoes. The right shoes truly make that big of a difference! As luck would have it, we were running from the Garry Gribbles store in Lawrence, and there was a NewBalance rep there that day letting people "test drive" their shoes. We started off with an 8 mile loop through the KU campus, then stopped back at the store before heading out for the rest of the run, so I was able to switch into a new pair of NB at that time. They were better than my old shoes, but definitely not for me. I'm an Adidas girl, and even when my shoes are new, they feel good to me. These did not. Of course, my feet were already blistered, so that probably had something to do with it. But really, that's my only "bad" run of late.

I've got my pace band for Chicago and am feeling good about being able to hit my time goal. Last weekend I did 14, and ended up with a negative split for the last half. I hooked up with some people in a little faster pace group, and pushed myself to stay with them. I ended up doing that last 7 at what will be my race pace, and I still felt great at the end. So, that really boosted my confidence. And all of my weeknight runs I've been doing faster than race pace, so that is feeling good too. Just under a month to go, I'm starting to get excited! And I'm still hoping to do KC that following weekend assuming that I feel good. October should be a fun month!

Now, I know that a lot of "pure" runners do not run with headphones. They say you should be listening to your body and concentrating on your stride and breathing and all of that, not zoning out listening to music. Well, I like to listen to music while I run, and I think it helps me. I dont wear headphones on my long Saturday runs since I'm with the group, but I do during the week. Nothing makes me pick up the pace like a little Nelly or Luda coming on!

I always like hearing what other people have on their running playlists, and people sometimes ask me what's on mine. Some of my favorites are:

Best of Both Worlds- Van Halen
Cold Hard Bitch- JET
Fuel- Metallica
Get Back- Ludacris
Heart of a Champion- Nelly
I Don't Care- Fall Out Boy
Ladies and Gentlemen- Saliva
Let it Rock- Kevin Rudolf & Lil Wayne
Lose Yourself- Eminem
Move Along- The All-American Rejects
Rollin- Limp Bizkit
Runnin' Down a Dream- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Stronger- Kanye West
Whiskey in the Jar- Metallica

20 miles tomorrow

2009-08-28T16:16:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow I've got my first 20 mile training run for Chicago. Well, if you dont count ET! The weather is supposed to be awesome, so I hope everything goes smoothly. We are running over in Lawrence, which is kind of a hike, especially since I need to start at 6. But it should be a good time.

Last weekend I ran 12 and I just felt really rough. It sort of made me question the reality of running marathons on 2 weekends in a row, but I am just chalking it up to a bad run. Sometimes you just have a bad run no matter what you do! Running this week hasnt been a toon better though, I've been sucking wind like a freaking 2-pack a day smoker. I dont know what the deal is.

Last weekend, one of the ladies in RE who lives close to the start of our run invited everyone over to her house for brunch afterards. It was on my way home, so I decided to stop by. Her husband was there, and I heard him talking to a couple of girls from the group about triathlons, so I moseyed over and jumped into the conversation. Lets just say this guy turned out to be a complete dick. The conversation went a little something like this:

(after him making several mentions about IM Wisconsin)
Me: Oh, have you done Wisconsin?
Him: YEAH! Twice!
Me: oh ok
One of the girls asks a question about how it must be difficult not to draft on the bike with everyone coming out of the water and getting on the bike course so close together. Dickhead starts going on and on about how it's SOOOOO difficult and requries a great deal of skill not to draft.
Me: Or, if you're a slow swimmer like me and come out of the water behind most of the people, you dont have to worry about it. Haha!
Him: Well I'm MIDDLE OF THE PACK, so, that doesnt apply to me!
More conversation about triathons, one of the girls asks if Ironman races are the largest events.
Him: Yes, there are 2200 people in each Ironman, they have the most participants of any triathlon.
Me: Well actually, there are others that are larger. For instance, there are well over 4,000 people that do Wildflower every year....
Him: rolls his eyes at me like I dont know what the F I am talking about
More convo, in which I make several references to doing an IM
Him: Have you DONE an Ironman??
Me: Yes, I did Florida in 2007.
Him: Oh, that's the easiest Ironman course.
Me: Fuck you, douche nozzle!
What I really said: Well, I dont think I'd consider any Ironman EASY.....

And then I had to walk away before I throat punched him, and go home and call Courtney.

So, congrats to him on being a 60+ year old, middle of the pack, asshole who has done a grand total of 2 Ironman races in his whole life. I bow down to thee.

Maniac

2009-08-17T12:05:00.002-05:00

Well I always need a new challenge. My main goal for this year is to break 5 hours at Chicago, but for some reason I found myself looking for yet ANOTHER goal to tack on. So, um, how about 2 marathons within a week??? Sounds good to me!

I always see people with Marathon Maniacs shirts on, and so I was checking out the website this week and found myself being able to answer "yes" to over half of the "are you a maniac?" questions. I'm also keenly aware of the fact that I'm running Chicago on Sunday, October 11th, and that the KC marathon is on Saturday, October 17. Hmmmmmm.....the wheels are turning.

So! Last week after ET I felt great, I could have run another marathon over the weekend. But since Chicago is my "A" race, I did the right thing and took a whole week off. Even though I felt great and was ready to run again. Now, I know I'll be pushing it harder at Chicago, looking to meet my time goal, but I think I will still be able to run KC. And really, even if I end up feeling too trashed that week following Chicago, no skin off my back to not do KC. This just happens to be a good opportunity to get in 2 marathons in a week, being that I'm already planning on one, and the other one is local.

So that's the current plan!

ET Full Moon Midnight Marathon

2009-08-12T20:07:00.007-05:00

So after a slight delay with our connecting flight in Phoenix, we finally got into Vegas around 10 Friday night. We were both starving, and since the hotel we were staying at was right across from the Hard Rock, we headed over there to have dinner at the Pink Taco. Ha! Dan got more than one giggle out of that one, I myself would never laugh at something so juvenile. Pfft.

I had planned to stay up really late Friday and then sleep in on Saturday, in the hopes of being SOMEWHAT rested for the race Saturday night. Um, that didnt happen. By the time we got done eating it was 11:30, which was 1:30 KC time, and I was beat. We went back to the hotel and the movie Sliding Doors was on (one of my favorites!), but I just couldnt keep my eyes open. Then I was awake by about 8:30 Saturday morning. Oh well, I figured I could take a nap later in the day.

We headed down to the pool and I found the rest of the gals from Runners Edge who had arrived earlier on Friday, and we spent a few hours there just relaxing and hanging out in the sun. Our hotel was right next to the UNLV campus, so we decided to take a walk over there to stretch out the ol' legs. We thought it might be kind of scenic, but all we managed to find were the athletic fields and an apparently abandoned greenhouse. After that we went over to the Olive Garden for an early dinner, and then back to the hotel to *try* to nap. I laid down in the room with my book, but just couldnt fall asleep. Normally I can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, but I just couldn't do it. So, I got a little rest, but no shut eye.

At 8:00 that night it was time to load up the busses for our 2 hour drive north to the middle of the desert for the start of the marathon. I think there were about 800-some people doing all the races (there was also a 10K, half mary, and a 51K), but everything was so well organized that it never felt like there were that many people around needing to get on a bus. Of course, a lot of people did drive themselves, which I cant imagine doing. Why drive yourself 2 hours out to the middle of nowhere to run a race in the middle of the night, only to have to drive yourself back when you finished? No thanks.

The drive out was pretty uneventful, and I think I did manage to catch a few minutes of sleep. Before we knew it, we were pulling up to the infamous Black Mailbox, which by the way is white, where we'd be starting from. It was only about 10:30 when we got there, so we hung out on the bus for a while longer before getting out into the "cold" air. And really, it wasn't cold, it was perfect running weather. Low to mid 60's.

Everybody was just milling around talking and having a good time, and the race director was on the bullhorn trying to locate a runner by the name of Hellen Keller. Or Hellen Kellen. Or something. But you can imagine how much fun we had with that one (it's Hellen Keller, no wonder she cant find the registration table!). Wrong, I know. Somehow everyone sort of got herded out on to the road, and before we knew it, she was on the horn saying "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!". That was it, that was our start! No big fanfare, no starting gun, no actual starting line, just "GO!"

Now, this is a race to do for the pure love of running, and for the unique experience of being able to run through the desert at night. As with the actual start, there was no fanfare, no bells and whistles. I decided to run with Cynthia and SueAnn from RE, and by the time people had gotten spread out after the first mile or so, it was basically just the three of us, passing the occasional person or the occasional person who would pass us. It was very solitary, but it was amazing. We weren't concerned with keeping any certain pace or any goal time, so we really didnt even pay attention to what pace we were running, we just kept it nice and relaxed, even making ourselves slow down even further several times. No need pushing it at a race that was just for fun!

The moon was a few days past full, but it was still very bright out. We all had to wear lights on our hats or carry some other kind of light, but you really didnt need them. It was more for safety. My light burned out after 2 and a half hours, but it wasnt too big of a deal. We could see the road just fine, and to either side of us we could see the shadowy figures of scrub bushes and joshua trees, with the outlines of the mountains in the distance. They had aid stations, but they were spaced every 3 miles, so a little farther apart than other races, so we had to carry our own water bottles. They did have cups, but they encouraged us to carry our own water bottles and just refill at the aid stations to help prevent littering the desert. I had borrowed Court's Fuel Belt, and it worked out perfectly.

The first half of the race was all on an incline, but it wasnt really that noticable until about mile 11. Then miles 11-13 got steeper and it definitely felt like we were running up hill. Since it was dark, you couldnt really see where the hill crested in front of us, our only clue were the increasing number of cars headed towards us. I guess people who had come out just to do the 10K and driven themselves were headed back to Vegas. Again, I dont know why you'd drive a total of 4 hours to run for an hour, but whatever.

Finally we crested the hill and we knew that the rest, quite literally, was all downhill. That sure was a great feeling! We picked up our pace a little bit, and I was still feeling really good at that point.

Now, one of the hard things about doing a race at midnight is timing your pre-race dinner. We at at 3 that afternoon, which was pretty early. But it still wasnt time for me to digest it before the race started. I had been hoping I could make it until the end, but ah, when you gotta go, you gotta go. They did have a couple of port-a-johns along the course, but of course, none when I needed one. So I just headed off the road a bit further than I'd gone just to pee, and took care of it. Ha! I was glad I had thought to stick some tissue in my pocket for "just in case". Now I'll tell ya, that moon seemed EXTRA bright right about then. I knew nobody could see me, but it still felt like there was a spotlight on me. So, check another first off the list.

By about mile 17, I was really starting to get stiff. This was now my longest run since OK City, and I was definitely feeling it. I was having to walk a little more than I wanted, and my IT bands were really tightening up, which hasnt happened in a long time. Thank goodness Cynthia and SueAnn were nice enough to stay with me, it sure helped having someone to run/walk with!

At mile 20 we had to pass the "town" of Rachel, which was where the finish was. Then we had to do a 10K out and back. I was super tired and sore and crabby by that time, so it was hard to head out and not just turn left and call it good. But out we went. Thats about when I hit the point that I've just decided I'm going to hit in every marathon. The "IhaterunningandImneverdoingthisfuckingshiteveragain" point. I started contemplating ways to get out of doing Chicago in 2 months. Could I break my leg? Get a concussion? Come on, there has to be some good way to get out of doing it, I cant just puss out! But I am never ever running a goddamn marathon again. EVER! Oh, and did I mention I hate running? Because I do.

It was also about this point that it got COLD. Up until then, it had been perfect. But now it was 5am and I was freezing. They say it's darkest before the dawn, well apparently it's the coldest before the dawn too.

The sky was just starting to turn pink, and when we turned around at mile 23 and headed back to town, we were facing southeast and had the pleasure of watching the sun come up over the mountains while we gutted out those last 3 miles. It was beautiful, I can't remember the last time I got to watch a sunrise, and I've never gotten to watch one in the desert. THAT made me so happy that I had done the race. When else do you get to do that? Watch the sun rise over the desert mountains while you are running a marathon? Unless of course you're Forrest Gump on your (totally unrealistic, I mean, he wasnt even carrying a water bottle) cross country run.

So we finally made it back to town and crossed the finish line. And once again, there was no fanfare, just a simple timing mat and a clock set up. No cheering fans, nobody waiting to give you a massage, just a simple "I'm done". It was perfect, I cant imagine mucking up a race this pure with a fancy finish. I loved it. Of course, I loved sitting down even more.

They had a big breakfast spread inside the Little Ale'Inn for us, but I never feel like eating after a race, so I just got a Coke. And a Coke never tastes as good as it does right after you finish a marathon. Seriously, best thing ever.

Because of when we finished, we were on the last bus back to Vegas, which didnt leave until 8. So we had about an hour and a half to kill just sitting around. But that was fine with me. Finally the bus pulled out, and we drove back the way we had just run. It was neat getting to see the landscape in the light! While we didnt see any animals while we were running (bummer!) we finally saw all the cows we had heard about on the drive back. They must have been sleeping when we ran by earlier.

It was about 10 by the time we got back to Vegas, and Dan and I still had to check out and head over to Planet Hollywood where we were staying that night. So I just showered up and we hopped a cab over there. Luckilly, it was closer to the Chipotle on the Strip, so once we got checked in at PH we hoofed it down there and I got my mandatory post-long run burrito. And again, they messed it up. The Chipotle in OKC made it too small, this place tore the tortilla all up when they wrapped it so it was hard to eat. I like my burritos big and fat and with the tortillas in tact! Whats so hard about that!?

By the time we got back to the hotel it was about 2pm and I FINALLY got to sleep. I took about a 5 hour nap before I woke up hungry again and we went out in search of dinner. When we got back to the hotel after dinner, I had enough energy to play $20 in the penny slots and then it was back to bed. Kind of lame going to Vegas and spending half of my time asleep, but that's better than blowing hundreds in the casino!

Monday we walked over to Caesars for the second highlight of the trip, lunch at Mesa Grill. I have a bit of a crush on Bobby Flay, so it was MANDATORY to eat at his restaurant. And it did not disappoint! Even Dan agreed that it was awesome.

So, all in all, a good trip, and a fantastic experience. Would I do a midnight marathon again? Probably not, but I'm glad I did it. Definitely an experience that every marathon runner should have, and it's a great way to check Nevada off the list. 4 down, 46 to go!

The important stuff

2009-07-27T11:43:00.003-05:00

Some things are just more important than others. Getting Chipotle after a long run or a race happens to rank up there among the most important things in this life. And I have just discovered that there happens to be a Chipotle inside Harrah's out in Vegas. Score! So we should be rolling back into town after ET just in time for me to get showered up and go get my burrito. Or I might make Dan go get it for me. But regardless, I will have my burrito!

Meet Fred

2009-07-24T14:26:00.007-05:00

So if you didnt know by now, I LOVE my dogs. Almost to an unhealthy level, and Dan sometimes wonders outloud if I love the dogs more than I love him. I am that person. Crazy dog lady. And I especially LOVE Boston Terriers. We have two of them, Penny and Walter. See, arent they cute?!

Then there is our big oaf, Max.

He was rescued as a puppy by my friend Megan, who found him and the rest of his litter abandoned with their mom in a cardboard box. Who would have thought that this little 2lb malnourished puppy, who could walk under Penny while she was standing, would turn into a big, loveable, clumsy 80lb beast?? Not me, thats for sure. He got a little bigger than we expected, but that's ok. My friend Dawn has his brother, Tucker. Which reminds me, we need to get together so the boys can romp around!

Anyway. So I love Bostons (and Max) and have been helping out a bit with the rescue group that we adopted Walter from. I've transported a few dogs, and held a few over night, but that's it. We weren't really sure about fostering, since we already have 3 dogs, and our house is a circus as it is. But then last week they had a message up on the website saying that they were in desparate need of foster homes. Well I am a total sucker for trying to help out some little Bostons, so I asked Dan, and he said we could. (of course, he was getting ready to leave on a 9 day fishing trip, so probably thought it would be hilarious to leave me at home with our three dogs PLUS a foster) So I called up the rescue agent and told her we'd like to try it out. She had a boy waiting to get into foster right away, so on Wednesday night I picked up Fred.

He was found as a stray down in Arkansas, and was turned over to MABTR. He is THE sweetest little guy ever! Just wants to sit on your lap and be loved and petted and give you kisses. The first couple days he wasnt too interested in playing with the other dogs, just wanted to stay glued to my side, but today he was out in the yard running around with them and playing chase. So I think he's getting a little more comfortable and coming out of his shell. He's such a good boy, he seems to be housebroken and he does great on a leash, but doesnt seem to know any commands. So we'll work on that.

I know he'll make an excellent pet for someone, but it already makes me a little sad to think about him leaving! Luckilly though, since we already have 3 dogs, we are NOT taking on a 4th of our own. No way. Dan has been trying to bribe me with the promise of letting met get more dogs if we move to the country, but since THAT isnt happening, 3 dogs it is.

So if anybody is looking for a new little friend, you can find Fred and lots of other Bostons that are waiting for a family at http://www.adoptaboston.com/

Problem solved!

2009-07-20T14:40:00.003-05:00

Shin splints are gone! I got in 14 miles on the 11th, and it was painful. Took me quite a while to loosen up. Then I tried to run last Monday and I just couldn't. It hurt way too bad. I got maybe half a mile before I had to walk. I was starting to get really worried considering that I have ET coming up in 3 weeks!

So anyway, I had a chiro appointment on Wednesday and I mentioned to her my problems with my shins. She said that sometimes what causes that pain is that the smaller bone in your lower leg, not the tibia but the other one, gets a little rotated which puts stress on the muscles and ligaments. The little knob on the outside corner of your knee is where that bone attaches. So she felt my knees, and said that it seemed to be a little "out" on my left leg. She adjusted it, and, VOILA! Shin splints gone!

My right leg is pretty much 100% better, I must have been compensating in some weird way for the pain in my left leg. My left leg is still a little tender, but it is WAY better than it was. I did 12 on Saturday, and it felt completely fine after the first couple of blocks. I am so glad I decided to mention it to her. So I think I should be good to go for the rest of my training for ET, and for the race itself. And oh yeah, for Chicago!

Shin splints

2009-07-08T09:18:00.003-05:00

So apparently I have developed shin splints. I'm just assuming that's what it is, I've never had them before. Now I don't want to be overly dramatic and say that the pain is crippling or anthing, but, it hurts really bad! It feels like my freakin' tibia is going to snap in half. They do feel better as I run, but it takes a while. I ran 10 on Saturday and it took the whole first half for them to loosen up, and I ran 3 last night and they never did. Sigh.

I dont know what I did to cause this, I haven't really been doing anything that different. Unless the bit of lifting I've been doing has been enough to jack me up. It shouldnt be an overuse injury, because I haven't gotten my mileage back up very high yet. But it's not like I took a major break from running either. So who knows.

I guess the best treatment for it is rest. Well, I have a marathon coming up in a month, so I dont really have time for much rest. So I guess I will just have to ice after I run. Does anybody have any other tricks to help this feel better?

While reading fellow running blogger Oz Runner's latest post, I was reminded that I need to get a light for ET next month. They say you are required to run with a flash light or head lamp, and I know I'm not going to want to carry a flashlight in my hand for 26 miles. So I need to look into getting a head lamp. I am really looking forward to this race, it should be a total blast. I mean, when else do you get to run through the high desert in the middle of the night and watch the sun come up? Probably never! So it should be a good experience. One month from today!

Speaking of which, I asked Eladio what I should do about my long runs, since I'm following a training plan for Chicago which only gets me up to 18 miles before ET. He said I should be fine with that being my longest run. I dont know if I believe him. Seems like I should get up to at least 20! But he's the expert, so I'll trust him on this one. And I'm not planning to run it for time, so I should be fine.

Triathlons are fun

2009-06-30T14:05:00.005-05:00

Somehow, I managed to be smiling in all of my race pics from Sunday. Granted, I knew where the photographers were, so I did make an effort to look like I was having fun when I came up on them. But I usually end up with a few where I look like I'm in excruciating pain. Not this time! Guess I actually WAS having fun!

Happy to be out of the water

Happy to be on the bike

Happy to be running

Happy to be done!

And thanks to Bryce for figuring out some sort of magic internet voo doo and saving my pics off without the watermark.

HyVee Tri race recap

2009-06-29T09:11:00.003-05:00

First off, this race was AMAZING. It was probably the most fun I have ever had at a race. The organization was superb, the course was fantastic, and the race village was huge. Secondly, I am an idiot and didnt know that my Garmin has a "multisport" function that lets you switch easily between biking and running without having to reset it, so I didnt wear it on the bike. Seems like I keep learning stuff about it's functions AFTER a race. Oh well, now I'll know for next time.

Bryce and I rolled into Des Moines around 3 on Saturday and headed straight to this sports bar, Legends, to meet up with his friends Dutch and Tony (who also goes by Skinny or Big Gay Toni, depending on who you ask) who were also racing. Tony's girlfriend Katie was there too, as well as his parents. We hung out there for a bit, and then went over to the MANDATORY race briefing that was being held at a school not far from the race site. Usually the "mandatory" race briefings aren't ACTUALLY mandatory, but this one was. You had to attend before they would let you pick up your packet. Lame.

Anyway, lets get on to the first cool thing about this race. They give you the greatest schwag bag ever. You get a bike jersey (and not a crappy one, a really nice one that is actually in your size), a good Headsweats hat, and a nice back pack that is absolutely stuffed with goodies. I havent even gone through it yet to see what all is in there. IMNA needs to take a lesson from the HyVee folks, because you really should get a goodie bag of this caliber for doing an IM. I mean, this wasnt even a half, and it totally trumped anything else I've ever gotten.

So after that, we headed back over to Legends for some dinner. Tim had joined us by this point, and some of his buddies from Columbia came and met up with us for a bit. The Columbia guys are FAST, and rolled up in a truck with about 20K worth of bikes on the back of it. Jealous! I think they all ended up placing in their AG, or something crazy like that.

After dinner we headed down to the race site to drop off our bikes and check things out. This was my first chance to see how amazing the venue was. I think the thing that impressed me the most was the finish area. It was HUGE!! They had these huge grandstands set up on 3 sides of it, two separate enormous video screens set up so that everyone on the whole site could watch the finish line, and even just the lead up to the finish was so cool. Really made me look forward to finishing!

The way the site was laid out, the road that the runners came in on to finish created sort of an "island" in the middle of the site. It was cut off from the other side of the site with the TA and lake and all, but in that middle "island" is where they had all the tents with vendors and food and entertainment and such. So to get to it, they had 3 or 4 huge pedestrian bridges set up that crossed the run course at various points, connecting the two sides of the site. It was really neat. And I would have pictures of it, but I got there and realized my camera was dead. Damn!

Got our bikes checked in, checked out the site, checked out the swim start, and then headed back to where we were staying since it was about bed time. We were staying with Bryce's friend Stu's dad. He and his wife were nice enough to let us crash at their house even though Stu wasnt up there to race. Was in bed by shortly after 10 with my alarm set for bright and early at 3:45.

My one complaint about this race is the parking situation. There was minimal parking on the race site, so they had other various locations set up with shuttles to take people in. The weird thing was, they had the volunteer and spectator parking areas WAY closer to the race site than the athlete parking areas. The athletes were supposed to park about 5 miles away at some mall! Which would have been OK for getting TO the race, but afterwards you'd have your bike, and you couldnt take a bike on the shuttle. Which meant that you'd have to ride back to the mall. Which again, isnt that big of a deal, but sort of annoying. Lucky for us, Stu's dad offered to drop us off in the morning. His house was actually a lot closesr to the race site than the mall, so we'd have a shorter ride back. Plus we wouldnt have to wait around for a shuttle to get us down there.

We arrived before 5:00, got our chips, got body marked, and TA areas set up. As I was setting mine up, I realized that I had forgotten my swim cap. Damn! I knew they would have extras somewhere, so I set about trying to find them. It seriously took me about 45 minutes to track them down, because every volunteer I asked told me something different, so I spent a good deal of time walking around trying to find a damn swim cap. Finally I found them in a crate RIGHT next to the swim start. By that time, I had just enough time to jump in the water and test the temp before the first wave went off. They had told us that the water temp was 86, which is HOT! It appeared to have cooled off a bit though, and was actually pretty comfortable. Still not wetsuit legal, but not boiling either.

The first swim wave went off at 6, and then another one went off every 4 minutes. Mine went off at 6:24, and the time seemed to pass pretty quickly while I was waiting for it. There were a lot of people in each wave, and I had a hard time finding some open water to work with. It was very crowded the first 300m or so, and I was getting kind of frustrated. Also, my goggles fogged up pretty quick, and they had the buoys spaced really far apart, so I was having a hard time sighting. I kept having to sight about every other stroke, and that was really slowing me down too. Finally I was able to get some open water, but I was still going pretty slow because of my sighting issue. I should have just taken the time to stop and take my goggles off and rinse them out. Oh well.

It was a clock-wise loop, and after we turned to head back to shore, we were pretty much straight into the rising sun. Which was making it even HARDER for me to sight. Fantastic. Also, somewhere in here, I was just swimming along, minding my own business, when my hand came down right onto some dude's package. I dont know if he was backstroking or what, but it was definitely package! Ha! So I finally made it back to shore, not really sure what my time was since I wasnt wearing a watch, but just happy to be out of the water.

When I got to the TA, I was happy to see that there were still quite a few bikes left. Even though I was in one of the middle waves, I was sort of worried that I would be at the very tail end of people heading out on the bike since my swim was so slow. But I wasnt, so that was good. I feel like I had a pretty quick transition, just pulled on my helmet and socks and shoes and was off. We had a short ride through the park, before pulling out onto the main road for the course, which was a simple out and back.

This course was completely flat, with just a couple of small hills before the turn around. On the way out, we had a slight headwind, which I only really noticed because I felt like I was working really hard and not going very fast for my effort. I got to the turn around, which kind of scared me a little bit after falling over and landing on my face at the one during IMFL, but this one was a little wider and I maneuvered it just fine.

The ride back in was FUN! I did drop my chain one one of the hills here, which usually freaks me out, but I just stayed calm and clicked back up a gear, and caught it right back. Now we had a tailwind, and I was able to keep my speed at over 20mph the entire way back. I was passing quite a few people, which felt great. There was one chick who was going just a TINY bit slower than me, but every time I would try to pass her, she moved over and blocked me. Granted, there were a few people right in front of her, so I couldnt tell if she was doing it on purpose or doing it because she was thinking about trying to pass them. But it was pissing me off, and I knew I needed to get around her. So finally I just punched it up a notch and got by.

Coming back into TA I was just having a great time and feeling realy good about my bike. Since I decided so late in the game to actually do this race, I'd only gotten in 3 rides, none of which were 25 miles long. My goal had been to average 16mph, and I ended up averaging 17.3. So I was very happy with that! When I got back to my rack, the two people on either side of me had racked really wonky, so it took me a minute to get my bike on. Then I just switched out my shoes, grabbed my race belt and the Garmin, and headed off.

The run was the part I was least worried about, since a 10K is cake, but this is where my lack of training really hit me. It was pretty apparent that I hadn't done any bricks, and my legs felt like lead. About the first mile of the run course was inside the park, which was nice because there were so many spectators. Once we got out of the park, there was a pretty decent hill, which I decided to walk up instead of expending too much energy running it with my heavy legs. Of course, this is where I saw Tim, as he was flying down the hill going the other direction. At the top of the hill was an aid station, and then a nice downhill, before we turned and had to make our way up another gradual incline. About half a mile after I turned around, I saw Bryce going the other wasy, and of course I was walking, AGAIN. Seems like I only see people I know when I'm walking.

After I got up the last hill and hit the aid station, I FINALLY started feeling really good, and was able to run the last mile or so at a pretty good pace. Coming into the finish was as cool as I had imagined, they just really made a big production out of it. I got my medal and a water, and then headed off to find a place to rest in the shade for a few minutes before looking for everyone. Really, the only part of the race that I'm disappointed with is my run, I know it could have been a lot faster. But I'm happy with the rest of it, my main goal was to have fun, and I did. My splits ended up being:
Swim (1500m): 43:42
T1: 2:10
Bike (40k): 1:26:26
T2: 2:00
Run (10k): 1:13:17
Overall: 3:27:34

After I cooled off a bit, I crossed one of the pedestrian bridges into the middle of the action, and went straight to the beer tent. I knew that's where they would all be hanging out! I found Tim and his Columbia friends there, so I grabbed a beer and joined them. Bryce joined us shortly thereafter, and we just stayed there for a while in the shade enjoying some beverages. We knew Dutch would be finishing sometime soon, so we went to watch for him, and then straight back to the shade and beers after he came through. I can't remember exactly how long we stayed there, but I think it was about noon when we left.

Tim had been lucky enough to grab a close parking spot, so he offered to drive Bryce and I back so we didnt have to ride. Definitely nice to have a ride. We got showered up and headed back to KC, and I was home by about 5:30.

So I would absolutely recommend this race to anyone, I really dont think I've ever had a better experience. IM was close, but I think this was actually better, in terms of just the overall event, and I didn't think I would ever be able to say that. I will definitely be back next year. If all races were this cool, I'd race every weekend! :)

Triathlete stew

2009-06-24T15:26:00.004-05:00

The website for the HyVee Triathlon has posted the current water temp for the reservoir we'll be swimming in. As of yesterday, it was 83 degrees. Yes, that's the water temperature. They also made a note that as of that reading, it is not a wetsuit legal swim. Ha. Ha ha! Wear a wetsuit in 83 degree water? Are you kidding me?? I will be shocked if I see ANYBODY wearing a wetsuit on Sunday. Even a shortjohn would be so hot. I might get heat stroke by the time I finish the swim anyway, no way am I adding a layer of neoprene. Swimming is supposed to be a little bit refreshing, this will not be.

It has really been too hot to do much of anything outside the past few days. I had actually planned on going out to SMP last night and getting in one last swim in the lake, but I ended up needing to drive out to Harrisonville to pick up a couple of bostons that MABTR was taking into rescue. A "breeder" down in Joplin had them living in crates outside. The small, short muzzled breeds are especially susceptible to heat, so they should not have been out there. Poor guys panted the whole 45 minute drive back to my house. They sure were friendly little suckers for having been cooped up in crates their whole life! They were stinky as heck, so they both got a bath, and then got to spend the night down in the nice cool basement. If we didnt already have 3 dogs, I would have just kept them both!

On Sunday I got out for a semi-long ride, but still cut it a bit short because it was just so hot. I went out south to my favorite stretch of straight, rolling pavement, and got in about 18 miles. I was planning on 25, but dang! Being out there in the blazing sun really takes it out of you when you arent acclimated to the heat yet. We've had a fair number of days in the 80's so far, but lately it's been in the mid-90's with a heat index of over 100. Hopefully it cools down a LITTLE bit for this Sunday.

This Saturday I'm getting up to run 12 with RE and then heading up to Des Moines for the main event. Should be a good time. Dan's got the Lenexa BBQ this weekend so can't come. The couple of time's he's missed a race it is a bit weird without my cheering section!

New game plan

2009-06-16T16:22:00.002-05:00

OK! Since I have decided at the very last minute to go ahead and do HyVee on the 28th, I have some serious business to get down to. I havent swam in....a while. And I havent ridden in....a while. I feel a bit like a tool for doing a race that I'm not trained for, because I hate it when other people do that. But, I'm fully aware of my limitations, so you wont find me complaining afterwards about a less than stellar performance.

So here's the plan. They have open swim in the lake at SMP on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I am going to go out there this week and next week to swim, and then ride. I'm not a HUGE fan of the monotony of riding in SMP, but I can always just leave the park and ride out west if I feel like it. I dont want to just give up on lifting the next 2 weeks since I was kind of getting into my groove, so I'll still do that on Monday and Wednesday. And I WILL get up and run in the mornings. At least I know I can run a 10k with no problem.

Sunday is Fathers Day, but I am going to plan to get a semi-long ride in. Ideally, I really need to get at least 25 miles. So all that should leave me sitting in an OK position. It will just be fun to go race again!

Sigh

2009-06-15T08:50:00.006-05:00

Did I really say that I didnt feel like doing any tris this year? What the hell was I thinking?! I was in Lawrence yesterday to watch IMKS 70.3 and was SO bummed that I wasnt racing. So bummed that I actually almost started crying a couple of times. It just felt so weird being a spectator. Sad!

However, it WAS fun getting to finally watch one! I've never gotten able to watch since I've always been racing in them. And this was a great race to watch! The way they had the run course set up, it was basically a loop of 3 out-and-backs that the athletes did twice. So we parked ourselves at the 3-way intersection of all those out-and-backs and got to see quite a bit of action. Plus, there were a bunch of big name pros doing the race, so it was cool getting to see them! Chrissie Wellington, Tim DeBoom, Joanna Lawn, Nina Kraft, Luke Bell, etc. Very cool. Aaaaannnnnndddddd, Chrissie Wellington even stuck around after the race and was handing out medals to the finishers, then after that she was over in a tent signing autographs and I got to get my pic taken with her! She seemed so genuinely nice and happy to be there, and was so patient with everyone wanting a picture or autograph. Very nice to see.

I had gone out to Lawrnece on Saturday night to spend the night with Courtney at her friends house and then head over to the race site early on Sunday. It was nice not having to drive all the way in from JoCo! Then Dan and Bryce came over in the morning because we had a couple of other friends racing too. It was cloudy and cool and sprinkling for most of the morning, then by the time people were out on the run course the sun had come out in full force and the temp had jumped up to the high 80's. And of course I got fried, I swear, I'm never prepared with sunscreen. Bad times. Dan had brought Max and Bryce brought Emma, so we also had 2 very hot dogs on our hands. We were able to find some shade out along the run course though, and Max cooled off pretty quick. I wore the ever popular "more cowbell" shirt from IMFL, and it was of course a big hit. I dont know what it is, but people just love that shirt!

So! Since I realized that maybe I DO in fact want to do some tris this summer, I'm going to go ahead and do HyVee in 2 weeks. I signed up months ago, and had planned to ride up to DesMoines with Bryce since he's doing it too and Dan has the Lenexa BBQ that weekend and cant go. I was going to just scrap it, but being at the race yesterday quickly changed my mind. So I guess I need to get on my bike and into the pool a few times here in the next couple of weeks! It's an oly, so I feel like I'll be fine with my MINIMAL swim and bike training. I wont be fast by any stretch of the imagination, but lets be honest, I never am. I'll just go and have fun.

No 70.3 for this one

2009-06-12T14:23:00.004-05:00

Ok, so 2 weeks of lifting are done, and I feel good! And I know it's all mental at this point, but I even feel like I already LOOK better. I just dont feel as squishy anymore. The scale has gone down a smidge, which is nice, but honestly that's not even what I really care about. Before I got into all this running/triathlon stuff, I was a total gym rat. Lifted 6 days a week, and I looked like it. Super lean, cut, just looked the way I wanted to. You'd think that running marathons, and I dont know, DOING AN IRONMAN, would keep a person in shape. And it does. Just not the same shape as hitting the weights.

My overall plan is to be running in the morning then lifting after work, but so far I've only managed one morning run. I've found that I have just been so TIRED, not to mention sore, with this new routine. I'm starting to get more adapted to it though, and am not feeling quite as worn down as I was at first. So that's good.

Saturday is the last day of RE for the spring session, then we have a week off before the fall sesion starts. I know, I know, the "fall" session starts in June. But it ends in the fall, so I guess thats why it's called the fall session! My friend Stacey is going to come run with us on Saturday, and is thinking about signing up at mid-session in August to train for the KC half marathon. I hope she does! I have been trying for ever to get someone to sign up, and I may have finall found a victim, er, taker. Anyone else in KC should really consider it as well, I just cant imagine a better way to get your long runs in. So, go sign up. Do it now! www.kcrunnersedge.com

This weekend is the IMKS 70.3 race over in Lawrence. I was all gung ho about signing up for it back in the fall, and was going to sign up for the Steelhead 70.3 as well. But I just sort of petered out on the whole tri thing this year and decided to just run. I dont know what it is, but for some reason having done a full IM now just makes anything shorter seem kind of blah. I know I shouldnt think that way, doing a sprint or oly or half is still a blast. And lord knows I need to work on my speed. But there's still that part of me that thinks "Ironman is just so COOL, anything else is pointless!". Kind of like how anything less than a full marathon now is boring. Geez, I really need a better mindset :)

But anyway, I'll be heading over to Lawrence to watch Court and a few others race it, and maybe that will snap me out of it when I see all the fun I'm missing out on. Because a half really is a fun distance, it's totally doable training-wise, and you're still done before dinner.

Hello summer!

2009-06-01T16:22:00.002-05:00

So yes, i got a little lazy after OKC and took about 3 weeks off. Eladio is always telling us though that the Kenyans take a MONTH off after a marathon, so what is 3 measley weeks!? Psh! Totally deserved it. I was definitely ready to start running again after that though. The bad thing about the timing of my littl break was that it happened to fall during apparently our only 3 weeks of spring. So once I started again, it was hot. Well, in the 70's, but thats a pretty big jump from where we had been. But still not bad though.

This past Saturday I had a 12 miler and thought I might just have heat stroke. Even though we started at 6:30, so I was done around 9, it was still about 80 by the time I finished. Usually I have a few people to run with, but Saturday everyone in my group was only doing 8. So they turned around at 4 miles, while I still had another 2 to go before I got to head back. I dont mind running by myself, and it was kind of nice to be out on the trail without anyone else around. The first 4 miles were pretty flat, then the last 2 before the turn were HILLY. Long, steep hills. The kind where you're pretty much forced to run on your toes to get up them. Fun times. But at least that part was in the trees and shaded.

On my way back, when I was at about mile 10.5, I passed two older guys going the other direction, not in our group. As they passed me, one of them looks right at me and says "better pace yourself!". WTF?! Pace your damn self, dude. Did I really look that bad? Probably so. I am not one of those girls who looks cute when they are running, I always end up looking like a hot mess. Oh well.

On Memorial Day Dan and I went to the Royals game, and as I was sitting there in my shorts, I looked down and was MORTIFIED by how my legs looked. No wonder my thighs got chafed at OKC, they are a big blubbery mess! Well, relatively speaking, anyway. I need to get those puppies toned up again.

Now, I knew I needed to start doing something else besides running. So in a half-hearted attempt to do something, I (dont laugh) had bought the Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred DVD and was going to do that in the mornings before work. Which I did, for a few days. But dang, it is boring! It's a decent workout, I can definitely give myself a better one on my own. It would definitely be good for beginners though. So anyway, I'm going to start getting up and running in the mornings, and then lifting after work. Works out well, since it's starting to be hot in the afternoons when i get home anyway, and I'm not a big fan of running in the late afternoon heat. So we'll see how this goes!

OKC Marathon recap

2009-04-28T18:39:00.002-05:00

Yes, it's been a while since I wrote anything. But I will make it up with a nice long post! And if I can ever find the cord for my camera, I'll put up my pictures from the race....

Windy and humid. Two words that you do not want describing the day of your marathon. But the two words that most accurately described Sunday.

This was my first Runners Edge bus trip, and I really loved it. We left Saturday morning around 8, and rolled into OKC sometime after 1. We headed straight to the expo to pick up our packets and do some shopping. Marcela, Pritha and I were starving though, so we skipped the shopping and walked over to Bricktown to grab a sandwich as soon as we got our packets.

Once everyone got loaded back on the bus, we drove part of the course to see what we would be in for on Sunday. The parts we saw all looked relatively flat, with just a couple of short hills. Nothing to worry about. We got checked into the hotel and everyone had a chance to relax before dinner. I was so glad I had gotten my own room, a king size bed all to myself! Quite the luxury when I’m used to sharing a queen with Dan and the two bostons. I read some more of my book, took a quick power nap, and woke up ready to eat again.

Now, at this point, I should mention that since Friday I had felt like I was starting to get sick. Not really bad, but just that feeling that I WOULD be feeling bad soon. My eyes were hot, I was a little achy, and felt like I had a slight fever. I had been downing Gatorade all day, partly to make sure I was plenty hydrated for the next day, and partly to try to flush out whatever was in my system. I hoped that all the fluids and a good night’s sleep would have me feeling better in the morning.

About half of the people in our group had decided to go elsewhere for dinner, but the rest of us headed down to the pasta dinner. The OKC marathon is a memorial marathon, run in honor of the 1995 Federal Building bombing victims, and the pasta dinner was actually held on the memorial grounds. I had been to the memorial before, and it’s of course very touching. But being there to run a marathon, which is an emotional experience in itself, just made it even more so.

The dinner was really good, as far as pre-race pasta dinners go, and they had live music and several speakers. The first speaker was Amy Palmiero-Winters, a runner who had lost her leg to being hit by a car while out on a training run. Despite that, she’s an elite athlete and holds several world records. She would be running the marathon on Sunday while pushing a 9 year old girl in a wheel chair. Those are the people that really inspire me, and the ones I think about when I’m out there hurting. I remind myself of all the people who do races with a prosthetic leg, (or TWO prosthetic legs, as is sometimes the case) and that if they can do it, then I sure as hell don’t have anything to be complaining about with two functioning legs.

We also got to hear running legends Dick Beardsley, Joan Benoit Samuelson and Bill Rodgers speak. Joan won the first Olympic women’s marathon event in 1984, and is still a world class runner today. Up until that point, women’s distance events were not allowed in the Olympics because of a (very wrong) notion that women were not capable, or would severely injure themselves. Now it’s widely accepted that women are actually physiologically built BETTER for endurance events than men. So, there!

Once we got back to the hotel I headed up to my room to relax, read some more of my book, and catch the news. We had known that thunderstorms were likely that weekend, and were all a little worried they’d be hitting OKC in the morning. We lucked out and they didn’t hit OKC at all, but stayed to the north and west.

I woke up on Sunday morning just praying that I would feel better, and I didn’t. I still felt like I was getting sick. But at least I didn’t feel any worse! So before I even got out of bed I knew that the day would be a struggle. We all met down in the lobby for some quick words from Eladio and a prayer, then headed off to downtown. It was very crowded, this was by far the largest race I’ve done. I believe there were around 20,000 participants between the marathon, half marathon, relay, 5k, and kid’s marathon. It was so nice riding the bus, since we were able to get dropped off fairly close to the start, and not have to worry about parking or anything. I dropped off my gear check bag, after a bit of trouble finding where I was supposed to do that, and got in the start corral behind the 12 min pace group. Surprisingly, I was having no nervous tummy issues, which is a first for me. No last minute trips to the port-a-john!

The start was right next to the memorial, and before we started they reminded us that we were running a memorial marathon with 168 seconds of silence. One second for each person killed in the bombing. I don’t think there was a dry eye down there after that. Once the gun went off, it took me about 10 minutes to get to the actual start mats since I was so far back, and then I was off!

I was wearing a pace band for a 5:15 finish time, so I knew how fast each mile needed to be. Runners Edge uses a “smart pacing “ strategy that has you warm up the first couple of miles at a much slower pace, pick it up in the middle to build a cushion, and then accounts for fatigue at the end. So my pace band employed this method instead of an even pace for each mile.

Before I even got half a mile in, the humidity hit me hard. I hadn’t noticed it much before I started running, but as soon as I did, the air felt as thick as pea soup and I was sweating like a pig. Great! Perfect way to start the race! We haven’t had much, well, ANY, humidity up here yet this year, so I definitely was not acclimated to it. At least it wasn’t too hot, and there was a nice breeze at our backs. There were lots of spectators at this point, and I was running with Marcela, so the mile and a half before the first aid station passed relatively quickly. Somewhere around that point Marcela stopped to use a port-a-john, so then I put my headphones on and tried to focus.

The humidity was really bothering me those first few miles, and just making me feel so sluggish. I felt like if I’d had any fever when I started, I was sweating it out now. My whole body just felt like it was burning up, and it was only in the low 70’s. That really worried me, and I was afraid I would have trouble in the later miles. But I just kept going, and tried to focus on where I was at.

Every mile I checked my pace band, and I was right on where I needed to be. So helpful, and very reassuring. I highly recommend using a pace band for anybody doing a half or full marathon (you can order one here). The miles seemed to be ticking by pretty fast, and I was in good spirits. Pretty soon it was time for the half marathoners to split off from those of us doing the full. I was actually really worried at this point, because when the half marathoners split off at Lincoln, I was totally alone. There was NOBODY around by the time I got to that point, and I HATED doing the last half of that race all by my lonesome. So you can imagine my relief to see that there were tons of people heading on to the full marathon course. Yeah! That meant I wasn’t totally at the back of the pack!

My feet were feeling good, my legs were feeling good, I was a bit stuffy, but other than that I was OK. Around the aid station at mile 8, I ran into Steve from RE. He was doing his first marathon, and starting to struggle a little bit. I talked to him for a minute, and then went on. It’s nice to have people to run with and talk to, but in a race, everyone needs to do their own thing and listen to their own body.

We were winding through some nice residential neighborhoods now, but by about mile 10 I was starting to feel pretty tired. 10 miles is a long way to run anyway, and then getting to that point and thinking about having to run another 16, well, it can be a little depressing. Just before the half way point my ipod died. Which was OK, because my sinuses were so congested that they were making my ears hurt, which made it kind of annoying to have earphones on. So it was nice to take those off. I stopped for a quick potty break at mile 13, and was back on my way.

Now, by this point, I was having an issue I’ve never had before. My damn thighs were getting chafed! Hello, thunder thighs! Gah! I think the main problem really was that my shorts were wet both from me sweating so much and from pouring water down myself at every aid station, and everyone knows that wet material chafes you way worse than dry. So they were wet and the seams were just rubbing my poor legs raw. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself the problem was. Although it probably wouldn’t hurt to lose a couple of pounds. But, whatever. It was the damn wet shorts, I tell you! Regardless of the cause, it was still painful. Luckily, right about then I saw the pink ladies sitting on the curb with a stick of sport slick getting their feet all re-greased, so I stopped and asked to use some. The pink ladies were these 3 gals in matching pink shorts and shirts that I saw a lot throughout the race, and they happily let me borrow their sport slick. Much better!

I knew we were getting close to the lake, and now I could see it. About that time I really felt the wind pick up, mainly because we were out of the protection of the neighborhoods. I saw DaShaun from RE in front of me a little ways, and made it my goal to catch up with him before the 14 mile mark. Just before you hit 14 miles, we turned south onto the trail that ran by the lake. And straight into the worst headwind I have ever dealt with. It was a sustained wind of about 25-30 mph, and I don’t even want to wager a guess as to what it was gusting up to. Up until then I had been pretty much right on my goal pace, and I just knew this was going to kill me.

The wind. I felt like I had run into a brick wall. All I could do was put my head down and try to make as much forward progress as possible. About then I caught DaShaun and we walked for a couple of minutes commiserating about this blasted wind. We decided we’d run to mile 15 and set out. Before we got quite to the mile, he decided to take a walk break and I trudged on. I felt like I was getting nowhere, and that if I stopped moving I would get blown backwards. It was that bad. I walked a lot more than I wanted to, because running really wasn’t getting me anywhere any faster than walking, but it was using twice as much energy. And to top it off, right about then the sun came out and heated things up. Fantastic! I had finally gotten over the humidity factor, and now I was dealing with wind AND the beating down sun. Thankfully, the sun went back behind the clouds after just a few minutes.

Finally, the road led us away from the lake. And straight up a bridge, which was one of the biggest hills of the course. I kept thinking that the wind would stop or that we’d turn out of it, but no such luck. We were pretty much straight into that dam headwind the entire rest of the race.

By this point, I had reached the point where I felt totally spent. I was tired, hot, sore, sweaty, I could feel the blisters on my feet, and I just wanted to be done. I wouldn’t really say I hit the wall, but my mood was pretty sour. Around mile 18 there was an aid station that had some “showers” set up for us to run under. Boy, did that ever feel good! We were still straight into the wind, but I had found MY second wind, and picked the pace back up a bit.

All along the course, they had banners up remembering the bombing victims. Each banner had one of their names on it, and reading the banners on this stretch of the course was getting me all choked up. I don’t know why NOW it was affecting me. I guess you just get to the point in any marathon where your body and your mind are so beaten, and all of your emotions are just right there on the surface. So it’s all just part of the experience, but I had to make myself stop reading them because getting choked up was making it hard to breathe.

The miles seemed to be going so slow by this point. Or maybe it was just that *I* was going so slow. Either way, I kept watching myself fall farther and farther away from my goal time and it was really bumming me out. I knew I would still PR though, but it was disappointing to not reach the goal I had set. I can’t remember where I was on the course when it happened, probably somewhere between mile 23 and 24, but when I looked down at my Garmin and it read the time that I had wanted to finish in, I just about started crying. But again, that made it hard to breathe, so I pulled myself together.

I was still having to do a lot of walking due to the frickin’ wind, but when I hit mile 25 I knew I could run the rest of the way in. There was an aid station about a half mile later, and I did walk through that so I could get a good drink. We turned a corner about a quarter of a mile before the finish, and it was a straight shot in so you could see the finish line. It was nice to be able to see it, and nice that I wasn’t still so far out that it would take me forever to get there.

A little before the finish, Eladio was standing on the side of the road watching for all of the RE people and gave me a high-five as I went by. I was so happy to cross that finish line, but it really wasn’t overly emotional or anything. I ended up finishing in 5:44, about 30 minutes slower than my goal time. So, that was disappointing, but I finished, and I PR’d (by about 25 minutes!), and I felt good. Really, that’s all I could ask for on a day that had less than ideal weather conditions and when I wasn’t feeling 100%.

The finish area was pretty large, and I had to look around for the place to get my chip cut off. I finally found it, and all the people sitting there were chatting amongst themselves and didn’t even see me. I had to ask about 5 times “are you taking chips?” before they finally saw me. Then, they tell me that they ran out of medals and shirts! Fuck! It’s pretty shitty to finish any race, let alone a marathon, and be told that you don’t get a shirt or a medal basically because you were too slow. I did manage to find a table that had finishers shirts left, but of course, they were out of smalls. I have NEVER gotten a size small finishers shirt. And the mediums are way too big, so I never get to wear any of my finishers shirts in public. Lame. I wish races would order more smalls, since they ALWAYS run out. Not all of use slow pokes are a size large!

At the OKC marathon, one of the cool things they offer are cheeseburgers at the finish. But, if you’ve ever finished a marathon, the last thing you want is a cheeseburger 60 seconds after you finish. A lady was walking around with a tray of them and pretty much shoved one in my face. I had to just walk away. And I still hadn’t found anything to drink! I REALLY wish they’d have some water available right at the finish, but you had to walk quite a ways to find any. So, didn’t meet my goal time, no medal, a too-big finishers shirt, cheeseburger in my face, and no water. But I was done.

I walked through the memorial on the way to where our bus was picking people up, and noticed that a lot of people put their bib numbers and medals on the chairs (each victim is represented by an empty chair). Very neat.

I got over to where our bus was, but our bus driver was missing, and the door was locked. Ugh! At least there were some benches right there, so I took a seat and waited for the driver and other RE people. Turns out, our bus was broken down, so a few of us had to catch a shuttle back to the hotel. No biggie. I got all showered up and packed and went down to the lobby. Our bus had been fixed by then, and everyone from the group was back to the hotel. I still had an hour to kill, so I walked over to Chipotle to grab a burrito. I must say though, I was very disappointed in my burrito. It was seriously about half the size that they make them here in KC. I don’t know if that is normal down there or if they were just being stingy because they were getting hit with all of us marathon people at 2 in the afternoon, or what. But I was not pleased! Think I’ll get a free burrito if I send in a letter of complaint? It still tasted good though.

We loaded up the bus and set out for home. One of the nice parts of the bus trip was having so many people to talk to and relive the experience with. Eladio let anyone who wanted to share get on the microphone and tell a little about their day. Most people did, and it was really neat to hear everyone’s stories. Only a couple of people hit their goal time, and many were quite a ways off, like me. So that definitely made me feel better. We stopped in Wichita for McDonalds (hey, Chipotle and McD’s within 4 hours of each other is perfectly normal) and then watched “Run Fat Boy Run” on the way home.

So all in all, it was a good trip. I feel pretty confident that if it hadn’t been for the wind and me not feeling 100% that I would have been able to hit 5:15. I know that no race is ever going to have ideal conditions, but hopefully I can hit one this year that has better than we did on Sunday. Next marathon is the ET Full Moon Midnight marathon in Nevada in August, and I’ll try for 5:15 again there.

Well isn't that some shit

2009-03-24T18:42:00.002-05:00

So, my work finally decided to block blogger. Fantastic! Usually I kill my lunch hour at work catching up on blogs and updating mine, and now I cant. When I get home, usually the last thing on my mind is getting online, so this is proving to be a pain in the ass. *sigh*

On Saturday I got in my second 20-miler in my OKC marathon training, and it went much better than the first. We ran on the Little Blue Trace trail, it's nearly flat, and is just in really great shape. The weather was perfect, a little cool to start, then comfortable by the end. Having a bad long run always makes me question whether or not I REALLY want to do a marathon, but then a good long run just confirms that I do. So I'm feeling really good about OKC coming up in a month.

This weekend is the Olathe half, and I'm looking forward to seeing how fast I can go. Runners Edge is leading the pace groups, so I'm for sure going to plan on sticking with one of them. I'm thinking I'll do the 2:20 group, since I think that if I can do a 2:20 half, I can realistically do a 5:00 full. We'll see! They're calling for snow/sleet/rain, which should make things interesting. I thought we were done with the snow for this spring! But, I keep reminding myself that I do better running in the cold than the heat. So I'm trying not to let it bother me.

I'm also meeting up with Kimpossible, Adventure Seeker, and Run to Finish on Friday evening. Yay! My first bloggy meet up! :)

I just felt like run-ning!

2009-03-17T12:53:00.002-05:00

I watched Forrest Gump last night, and the part where he's running across America always gets me. Where does he sleep? How does he pay for stuff? (because he didnt take any money with him when he left his house) Are his feet just totally blistered? He appears to do the whole thing in one pair of shoes...I dont think that is good for you. Do his knees and hips bother him from running that much? And how does he run that much when he hadnt even been training!? I need to learn to stop analyzing movies.

Anyway. I am so proud of myself today. I have the afternoon off. And it's St. Patricks Day. It's also 70-some degrees here in KC. Perfect weather for sitting on the patio drinking some green beers. But nope! I am going to go home and get in my 8 miles first. THEN I shall treat myself. I even turned down some invitations to go start drinking this afternoon with my friends. I'm either dedicated, or old and boring. We'll go with dedicated.

20

2009-03-11T11:31:00.003-05:00

I kept meaning to post about my 20 from Saturday, and I kept forgetting or getting too busy! Saturday turned out to be an unseasonably warm day for the first part of March, about 65 or so. I went out early at 6:30 to do 2 miles before starting with the main group at 7, and I got hot just from that. I knew that wasn't a good sign.

When our main group started at 7:00, I was actually feeling pretty good up until about the time we turned around. We had a pretty good sized group for the first 7 miles or so, and had a good conversation going. The first 3 miles of our route were through a HILLY neighborhood, but after that we jumped on the trail and it was relatively flat. The second aid station had Jolly Ranchers, which I was super excited about, because the last time I took Jolly Ranchers with me on a run was at IMFL. I had kind of forgotten about them! I highly recommend them for long runs.

It ended up being only Kristi and I going 18 miles (I only had to do 18 with the group since I'd already done 2), so we were by ourselves after everyone turned around. We were having a good time, and I was feeling pretty good, despite the fact that I was getting really hot. When I'm running in the heat, my fingers tend to swell pretty bad, and that had already happened. I know 65 degrees isn't "hot", but it sure is when you've been running in 30 degree weather or cooler for the past 5 months.

After we turned around I really started hurting. My hips were sore, and my left foot was starting to bother me again. I did something to it on my 16 mile run 2 weeks ago, and it hasnt bothered me since, but I hadnt done any very long runs either. So between my foot, my hips, and my sausage fingers, I was not a happy camper. But Kristi was feeling it too, so at least I had some company in my misery. By the time we got back to the neighborhood portion, we were both just DONE. We ended up walking probably a mile total of the last 2 miles. Disappointing, but at that point I really didnt care. I was just happy to have gotten in my 20.

On the bright side, my feet didnt blister any more than normal. On Sunday I cut my blisters off completely and have been keeping New Skin on those areas, so I'm HOPING that will help the issue a little bit. They always drain on their own, but then I never take a long enough break from running to let them really heal. So they just fill up again the next time I run. I've been laying off the running this week hoping that my foot issue will resolve itself.

I made Dan go get my Chipotle this time, and I scarfed that thing down in about 2 minutes. 20 miles makes a girl hungry! Up this weekend is a nice "short" 12 miler. Can't wait!

Foto Friday

2009-03-06T08:36:00.003-06:00

I am a little bitter after last night's run, so I am in no mood to post any running or tri related photos today. So you get my dogs :)

Last night's run did not go so well. I had 4 miles planned, and was looking forward to it becasue it was so nice out. About 75 degrees, just beautiful. I loosened up really quick and just zoned in and cranked out the first 2 miles in 19 minutes. Yeah! 9:30 pace! Man, I was so excited. Then I turned around. And my legs were like "eff you!", so I had to slow down a bit. Then my stomach was like "eff you!". Uuuuggggggghhhhhh! I tried to keep going, but you get to a point where your only options are either walk it in, or start looking for a large bush to go behind. Since I was in the middle of a residential neighborhood, plan B was not an option. So I ended up having to walk about the last mile. Feck! I was really excited about the possibility of doing 4 miles in 40 minutes or less. But, if I'm going to crap myself, it will not be on a 4 mile run!

Tomorrow I've got my 20-miler planned. I'm looking forward to the Chipotle burrito that will earn me!

This and That

2009-03-05T13:23:00.007-06:00

Oh boy have I been slacking. On updating my blog anyway. I was PLANNING to run 12 miles last Sunday, but that didn't happen. I had a good reason, I swear! I help out from time to time with Mid-America Boston Terrier Rescue with transporting dogs to where they need to go. I had volunteered to pick up a dog from her foster home on Saturday morning and give her a ride part way so she could meet her ride for the rest of the way to Omaha where she was being adopted. Well, long story short, I ended up picking up TWO dogs on FRIDAY night, whom I kept all weekend, then had to pick up the original girl on Sunday morning and drive them half way to Omaha. Which was farther than I had originally been planning anyway. Really, who could resist these cute little faces!?

Poor girls, both of them were totally terrified and didnt come out of their crates all weekend. Until I left their crate doors open on Sunday morning while I was getting ready and the little red one crawled in with the black one so they could snuggle. Both are doing well, and are available for adoption if anyone is looking for a little friend! :)

And the reason I had to skip RE on Saturday morning? Well, I was hosting a baby shower. And this was not just ANY baby shower. This was an all out fetus party! We didnt start out intending to have a fetus themed shower, it just sort of evolved. First with the discovery of fetus shaped cookie cutters, and then it just went from there. You know it's a good party when the guest of honor shows up wearing a fetus shirt, one of the drinks being served is called Bon Drunkage, there are fetus cookies complete with umbillical cords and placentas, and people are still at your house partying at 11:30 at night. Fun times! Some highlights:

Some fetus cookies:

A rousing game of "pin the fetus on Jules"

Baby R likes the Absolut Pear already! (isnt that fetus shirt kind of creepy!?) And not to worry, no alcohol was consumed by the mom to be, she was just lamenting the fact that she couldn't partake :)

So, I may not have done any running, but I did have a fun weekend. Now back to reality. I have a 20-miler for this Saturday that I'm actually looking forward to because it's supposed to be like 70 degrees out. Talk about spring fever! I did 6 miles on Tuesday, and came out with an 11:15 pace. But that includes me having to wait quite a while on both my way out and way back to cross a really busy intersection. So lets just say it was more like an 11:00 pace. Which I'm really happy with.

Foto Friday

2009-02-27T09:05:00.003-06:00

Time for Foto Friday again over at Nike Mom's blog! She picked a them for this week: America's Next Top Runner. Hmmmmm. I was trying to think of ways to get all creative, but I couldn't come up with anything. So you get a picture of me running! This is leaving T2 at Heritage Park in 2007. I couldn't remember if it was 07 or 08, but based on my shoes it was 07. They were my one foray into Mizuno's, and then it was back to Adidas for me.

This weekend I'm skipping RE on Saturday because I'm hosting a baby shower at my house in the afternoon that I need to get ready for. So, I'll be doing my long run on Sunday all by my lonesome. I'm scheduled for 12 miles, and I dont know that I've ever run that far by myself. I think the closest I've come is doing my first 10 miler with just Court a few years ago. So, I'll strap on the ol' fuel belt and make sure my ipod is charged up and see how it goes. Maybe this would be a good time to figure out the "training partner" function on the Garmin. Guess I should figure out a route too!

The Biggest Liar

2009-02-26T14:15:00.002-06:00

So I admit it, I love watching the Biggest Loser. Even last season with horrible Heba, Ed, and Vicky did not diminish my love for the show. Well things have changed, my friends!

A couple weeks ago when Blaine got kicked off, they filmed him at the end preparing for an "Ironman". Except, they showed him talking about the race, and the numbers didn't add up. They didnt even add up to a half Ironman. Whatever, I just chalked it up to him being a newbie and not knowing what the deal was. I was a little irritated though when NBC stated that he would be competing in an IRONMAN, when that clearly wasn't what he was training for. Why exaggerate? Doing a half ironman is an amazing accomplishment. They dont need to diminsh that by making it sound like he was planning to do a full. Not to mention, NBC airs Kona every year, so you'd think they know what is involved in an actual full Ironman!

But last night took the cake. Blaine's cousin, Dane got kicked off. In the clips at the end, they show him talking about doing a marathon with his wife, and then SHOW them "finishing" a marathon. The clock shows a time of 5:53. Then, NBC states that Dane and his wife completed the marathon in 3:53. The hell?

Wellllllll.......come to find out, they didnt even run the whole damn thing! They got picked up at some point, it sounds like around mile 17, and then dropped closer to the finish. They didnt even tell the race officials they got a ride, they collected their medals. It took other racers reporting them to the race officials before they were DQ'd!

Here is what pisses me off. If this formerly 400+ lb guy ran even a half marathon, that is AWESOME. But for NBC to blatantly lie about his accomplishment is a slap in the face to everyone who HAS actually trained for and completed a full marathon. I dont care how long it takes you, I mean, look at my times. I'm slow as hell. But finishing a marathon is a huge effing deal, and NBC just completely shit all over it. But, for a show that promotes "average" weekly weight loss to be double digits, and trains contestants to think that a 5lb loss is somehow poor, I shouldnt be surprised.

There have been a lot of cleberities in the past few years who have gotten some press for running a marathon. That has just led to the perception by the general population that completing a marathon is no big deal. Well, it IS a big deal. And it takes a LOT of hard work and effort. It really saddens me to see a major network feeding into the misconception of how NOT a big deal doing a marathon really is.

Here's some more chatter on it:
http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/02/the-biggest-los.html

I cut it short AGAIN

2009-02-23T10:07:00.002-06:00

I was SO not feeling an 18 mile run on Saturday. I didnt feel like running at all, let alone 18 miles. I went out early to do 2 miles before starting with the main group at 7, just to get myself done a little quicker at the end. I almost just went home after those first 2 miles. It was cold (about 20 degrees) and windy and my legs were tight after just a mile. Fantastic. I had even doubled up on my pants, had a layer of tights on under my wind pants, and my muscles were still not having any of it.

But, I decided it would be ridiculous to wake up so early and drive over to Grandview just to run 2 miles, so I kept at it. I ended up only doing 16 instead of the 18 I had planned because the other two gals that I normally run with were doing 16. That's a bad habit I find myself falling into, and I need to get out of it. They arent doing the same races I'm doing, so of course they won't be doing the same mileage on our Saturday runs. I will most likely be skipping this Saturday's long run because I'm hosting a baby shower at my house that afternoon, so I'll have to get it done on my own Sunday.

Our course started off at Grandview High School and we made our way up to the trail at Longview Lake. I HATE that trail. It is so broken up and uneven, it is just a really poor runninng surface. So by the time we got done, my ankles and feet were killing me. I felt a lot better after stretching out and taking a shower (and of course consuming my usual 1100 calorie Chipotle burrito), but my left foot was still pretty painful. It's much better today though, so I'm thinking it was probably just a tendon or something that got a little over-used.

I finally loaded the Garmin software onto my computer last night and got all of the data from my last few runs uploaded. It is so cool! I can totally see where all the aid stations were based on my speed, and it's neat to see how a change in grade affects your speed. Although, Garmin better check yaself, because I do not appreciate my pace being classified as a "slow jog"! I need to spend some more time playing with the actual unit, because I know it's got a bunch of features that I haven't even touched yet.

Foto Friday

2009-02-20T12:13:00.003-06:00

Time for Foto Friday again! This week it's one of my wedding pictures. The hubs thinks I never talk about him on my blog, so here ya go! We got married Thanksgiving weekend in 2006, so it's been a little over 2 years. Some days it feels like not a day has passed, and some days it feels like eternity ;) Just depends on my mood I guess, and if you ask him, he'll probably tell you that I have a lot of "moods"!

Up this weekend, an 18 mile run, and of course, Chipotle! My original plan had been to lift on Sundays, but it is hard to get motivated to go to the gym after doing a long run the day before. Especially when I usually spend the rest of the day on Saturday laying on the couch watching Lifetime movies or catching up on my DVRd shows, which leaves me with the cleaning and grocery shopping to do on Sunday. I keep reminding myself that when I was training for IM, I'd do my long run on Saturday and then turn around and spend all day Sunday on my bike. I dont know how I got anything done then.

Speedy Gonzales

2009-02-17T08:43:00.002-06:00

So, it turns out that I can run a little faster than I actually have been. *gasp!* I dont know why I always thought that I HAD to be so slow, but thanks to my handy dandy Garmin (which is about the best thing ever invented, by the way), I've discovered that I can in fact run faster than 11:30-12:00 min miles.

Saturday our run was up at Cliff Drive. Which I LOVE because it is such a pretty run, but, those of you in KC know it's not exactly the best area. We're talking, a mile away from Independence Ave where all the hookers hang out, it's been a dumping ground for dead bodies, that kind of thing. And Cliff Drive itself is pretty isolated, in fact, they gate it off on the weekends to keep cars out of there. So it was nice to be able to run without worrying about traffic. But I definitely wouldn't want to run here by myself.

Anyway, Saturday I had volunteered to be pace group leader (PGL) for the 11:40 group since Kristi was out of town. Every session, the Cliff Drive run is not very well attended, so we ended up with only about 6 people in our group. Our course was a 5 mile loop instead of the usual out-and-back set up, I assume for safety reasons. Everyone else in the group was only doing 5, and I had 10 scheduled (well, 12, but decided to make it 10 for simplicity's sake). So I stuck with my normal group for the first 5, and honestly, I felt like I was crawling. Something about being able to actually SEE what pace I was running made it feel really slow. I wanted to go faster, but since I was PGL, I tried to keep on pace.

After we finished the first loop, I was able to hook up with the 11:20 pace group for my second loop. Now, the 11:20 PGL is known for going faster than 11:20. But I didn't realize exactly HOW much faster. Pretty much ever time I looked at my watch, we were under 10:30. And half the time, we were under 10:00. So, for me, that is a little quick. But you know what? I felt just fine. In fact, it felt downright COMFORTABLE to be running at that pace. Did I mention that pretty much the entire run was uphill? The first mile was flat, then there was a really sharp downhill before we got on Cliff Drive which was completely uphill for the 3 or so miles we were on it. But I still felt good going faster than what I'm used to.

So, that is pretty exciting! I did 2 last night and finished with an overall pace of 10:46, which included walking up part of this hill by my house and then having to wait for a bunch of cars before I could cross the street. So, I actually RAN faster than that. I feel like I for sure can break 5 hours in a marathon this year, and I know I can blow my half mary PR out of the water too. I think I'm going to do the Olathe Half next month just to see how I do.

And this is off topic, but for those of you that have seen the new Friday the 13th, how is it EVEN appropriate to take a 10 year old kid to that!? Dan and I went to see it Sunday night, and there was some woman there with her son, he couldnt have been over 10. All good classic horror flicks follow the same formula; sex, drugs, and gore. And this had PLENTY of all 3. I'd even venture to say that it had more than any of the earlier versions. It's not the 80's any more, films have gotten raunchier. Maybe I am just getting old, but there is no way in hell I would take a 10 year old kid to see that! Oh, AND she didnt even make him sit with her. The theater was pretty empty, and she let him about 4 rows behind her. Which meant that he could (and did) get up and move around during the movie without her seeing him. And then she didnt bother to make sure he picked up his trash after the movie, and he left a half full bag of popcorn spilled out on the floor. Parenting at it's finest.

Foto Friday

2009-02-13T09:39:00.004-06:00

Time for Foto Friday again. And since Janice over at Run Far & Strong posted a pic of her tat, I thought I'd share one of mine (I've got 3 more, but I'll save those for another day).

When Corky got married last fall, she had her photog snap a picture of us and Robo lined up with our Mdot tats. Way cool. And I loved my shoes (I'm on the right), but seriously, I will take my running shoes over a pair of stilettos any day. I still need to get an actual copy of that pic from Court (I snagged this one off her photog's website) so I can put it up in my red room/bike room. I've decided that's where I'm going to hang all of my race stuff, at least until it turns into a baby room. Shhhh. Yes, I said it. Everyone that comes over to the house says "oh, this would be a great BABY ROOM!!!" when we give them the tour. So yes, I will admit it, thats the plan. At some point. Just not quite yet!

Doing Your Best

2009-02-10T11:01:00.003-06:00

As I was finishing my run on Saturday, another group of girls was finishing at the same time. I overheard them talking about their 22 mile run. And for a second, I was embarassed that it had just taken me the same amount of time to run 16 miles that it had taken them to run 22. Just for a second. I remembered an article I read a while back about doing your best. I've read that article a number of times, and I just read it again. To remind myself that there is nothing embarassing about how fast or slow I run, even if there are people out there that run twice as fast as me. I think we all need to be reminded of that from time to time.

http://www.active.com/running/Articles/Penguin_Chronicles__Doing_your_best.htm

New shoes!

2009-02-10T08:52:00.003-06:00

Having to take Walter to the emergency vet for stitches on Friday night at 10:00 did not bode well for how the rest of the weekend was going to go. Luckilly, that was really the only bad part of the whole weekend.

Saturday was another BEAUTIFUL day. We've been pretty lucky with our weather this winter. Aside from a few really cold snaps here and there, it has been pretty mild. It was a little chilly starting out, but was supposed to warm up to over 70. And since I was running 16, I knew I'd still be out there when it warmed up. No long sleeves for this girl!

Now, I dont know WHAT I was thinking, but I didnt take any GU or electrolytes with me. I guess I am just not in "long run" mode yet. Stupid! I felt pretty good the first 5 miles or so, but by mile 6 I was getting pretty warm and wishing I had something with me. They do have Gatorade and pretzles and such at all of our aid stations, so that saved me. But still, I really could have used a few GUs. I was with several other people the first 8 miles, but when I turned around, I was all by myself. I usually have at least one other person to run with on those long runs, so it was a little weird. I'm also used to having my ipod when I'm running alone. So this actually reminded me a little bit of Ironman....running a long way by myself with no music. It really wasnt that bad, but I do prefer some company.

By mile10 I was really wanting to be done. It was so much warmer than I'm used to, and my feet were blistering up BAD. Before I headed out that morning, I had meant to paint up the sides of my big toes with New Skin. I tend to blister there on my long runs, and the New Skin totally helps. And of course I forgot. It didnt help that my shoes were in dire need of replacement. So, in addition to the bottoms of my pinky toes which blister up no matter what, I had some rockin' blisters on my big toes too. Awesome.

Right after I left the mile 12 aid station, I passed a couple of high school girls running the other way. Obviously, not with our group. I looked back, and sure enough, they were stopping at the aid station. Despite the huge sign that says "Reserved for Runners Edge Participants". UGH! I HATE people that break the rules. I am a little weird in my love for rules. I felt like hollering something at them, but didnt want to be "that" lady. And given that I'm about twice their age, I would in fact be a LADY. I really hate that term. And ma'am. Anyway.

Made it back to the start hot and tired and blistered, but really no worse for the wear. Since we had started at Garry Gribbles, and any time we start at a GG store we get 25% off instead of our usual 20%, I decided that it was time to break down and finally get some new shoes. I had been running in the same shoes since about August of 07, and they were the shoes I did IMFL in. Plus, they were the shoes that I bloodied up. So, I guess you could say they had a little sentimental value. And really, I barely did any running last year. So it's not like I put in a huge amount of miles on them after Florida. But it was definitely time. They were really broken down and starting to make my arches hurt. New kicks are always fun, now I cant wait to dirty them up a bit!

I met Erin out for Chipotle that afternoon, and I'm embarassed to admit that I actually wore my Crocs in public. But hey, my feet were swollen and blistered and just wouldnt cooperate with me putting anything else on them. I know I promised to never wear them in public, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Lets Make a Deal

2009-02-05T10:37:00.003-06:00

I made a deal with the devil. Ok, it was just Dan. Being that I'm all adult and stuff, and have grown up responsibilites (ie, bills to pay) I have been thinking a lot lately about how to prioritize the stuff I want to spend money on. Becuase there is a lot of stuff I want to spend money on, and I just can't do it all. I'd be able to spend money on more of the stuff I want if it wasn't for this stupid house. Well, the house isnt stupid. I love our house. But, I'd have a lot more free cash if we still only had a $900 mortgage payment! Our new one is, uh, more than that. But then again, we'd still be crammed into an 800 sqft house with 3 dogs. And that wasnt very fun either.

Anyway. I was planning to do KS 70.3. Honestly though, I wasn't really looking forward to it all that much. I was, but not the same way I am looking forward to my marathons this year. I dont know WHAT my deal is, but I just want to run my ass off this year. So, in the interest of being more running oriented, I made a deal with Dan. I'd forego the KS 70.3 and it's $250 entry fee (I know it's published as $225, but after all the Active fees, it's way more) and get a Garmin Forerunner instead. Yay! I ordered it yesterday, I cant wait to get my new toy. Maybe actually seeing my slow ass pace while I'm running will motivate me to go faster. Yeah! Thats the ticket!

And, I'm almost feeling like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders in not having to train for a 70.3. That's a pretty serious distance to take on after I pretty much took all of last year off. So, I will be runner girl this year and just do a few of the shorter local tris.

Chic Runner's giveaway

2009-02-03T16:37:00.001-06:00

Chic Runner, one of my favorite new bloggers, is giving away a copy of "Eat This, Not That" in honor of her 100th post. What a great idea! Stop by her blog for a chance to enter!

Well....

2009-02-02T13:55:00.002-06:00

Ok, so I know I just said 2 days ago that I'm not going to do Steelhead in the interest of saving money so that we can go on a vacation that doesn't revolve around a race. Buuuuuuut, some people on Saturday were talking about this race, and I wanna do it! Here are my reasons:

It starts at midnight, and that sounds pretty awesome
Get to run through the desert in the middle of the night
It's out by Area 51, so I might get to spot a UFO
Breakfast after the race at the Little A'le'Inn, which if you havent seen on the Travel Channel, you are living under a rock
Host hotel is in Vegas
They bus you out to the race and back
It's a good excuse to go spend a couple of extra days in Vegas
Can check Nevada off my list

I think I have convinced the hubs that it is a good idea. He could do the half, then just hang out and eat while he waited for my slow ass to finish the full. So bloggy peeps, who else wants to do it? I know some of you have got to be looking for an August race....

10 and done

2009-02-02T09:07:00.002-06:00

It's so funny how sometimes a run of a certain distance can totally wipe you out, and then the next time it will just feel like nothing. I did 10 on Saturday, and spent the rest of the day feeling like I had done 18. The weather was PERFECT. Not "perfect for January", just perfect. Maybe 40 or so when we started out, nice little breeze, sunny, warmed up maybe to 50 by the time we finished. Per-fect. It was a new course for us, which is always nice to throw in a little bit of variety. We started off at 68 Inside Sports, and ran over through Downtown OP, so right through my old 'hood! I ran a lot of those same streets before we moved, so it was pretty fun. I felt amazing the entire run, felt like I could have easily done another 4 miles or so.

Then, I just crashed. Actually, I got home, watched a little bit of a movie, showered, and headed over to Chipotle for my normal post-run burrito. The problem occured when I left the last quarter of my burrito sitting on the coffee table to go outside and pay for the Girl Scout cookies that the neighbor girl was delivering.....and returned to find Penny on the floor devouring the remains of my burrito. I need the whole burrito to fully recover from a long run. That had to have been the problem. So I spent the rest of the day feeling like hell. Next time I will be sure that the entire burrito makes it's way into my belly.

Last night we had some friends over to watch the Super Bowl, and even *gasp* let them bring their kids. Being that we're literally the only childless couple out of D's group of friends, we've pretty much come to the conclusion that if we want to get together with them, kids are going to be involved. And for people such as ourselves, who are used to only dogs running through the house, the thought of 6 little kids running around is a bit much. But they all kept themselves entertained down in the basement, with no crying or screaming or destruction of property involved. Maybe we'll let them come over again :)

Walter

2009-01-31T12:16:00.005-06:00

I totally think that Walter was a walrus in a past life. Dont you agree?

Foto Friday

2009-01-30T13:20:00.003-06:00

Going to play along with Nikemom's Foto Friday tradition! She posted one that is giving her inspiration to get her butt in the pool, here's one that inspires me:

Ah, how I love a good TA. Just when I'm thinking "yech! I dont want to race this year, that all sounds like too much work!" I see a pic of a TA and I remember how much I miss it. Something about all those bikes in one place just makes me want to put on some spandex and hit the road.

I've been reevaluating my race shedule a bit for this year, though. In the interest of saving money (because I want a REAL vacation, dammit! One that doesnt revolve around a race!), and racing is expensive, I think I'm going to ax Steelhead. That was going to be my big travel race for the year, and honestly, I'd rather just spend the money getting to a beach in Mexico. Also not sure if I'm going to do Shawnee Mission. I know it's pretty much a standard race for everyone to do around here, but really, dont we get enough of Shawnee Mission Park? Thats where I go to do my OWS training, where I go if I want a nice hilly, low-traffic loop to ride, same for running.....do I really need to pay to do it? Not really.

Plus, after HyVee at the end of June, I'd like to be able to concentrate on my marathon training a little bit more. I'm still planning to run Chicago in October, so 3 months to focus soley on running would be awesome. But fear not! I still have plenty of tri's on my schedule. Heritage Park and the new KC Tri both in May, KS 70.3 and HyVee both in June. Still not sure about QuarterMax, I dont know that I really want to do 3 tri's in the span of 5 weeks. We'll see. But regardless, it should be a fun summer!

I am not OCD

2009-01-26T11:20:00.003-06:00

Well, I had myself all psyched up to go run 14 outside on Saturday. Ate a good dinner Friday night, laid out all my warm clothes before I went to bed, etc. But, it just didn't happen. I figure I have to draw the line between hardass and stupid at some point. And that line is somewhere north of 9 degrees. I woke up at 6 and didnt even pretend I was going to get up and go. I just shut the alarm off and went back to sleep. I did get up and go run 5 miles on the treadmill at the gym though. I would have gone farther, but the treadmill shuts off after you've been on it for an hour. Ok, maybe I wouldnt have gone farther. Running on a treadmill is one of the most boring things I can imagine.

Sunday I did the Groundhog 10K with D and a couple of other people. This was actually the first 10K I've ever signed up for. I've done 5K's, 4-milers, half marathons, marathons....but never a 10K. It was all in the underground storage caves, so the temp was in the mid-60's or so. A welcome break from all the outside running as of late. I did it in 1:12, which is an 11:15 min/mile pace. Not too bad for me. I'm used to being beat by 70 year old women, so whatever. What bugs me though, is all the volunteers. I'm ALWAYS at the tail end of race. I'm fine with it. But I cant stand it when us stragglers come through and the volunteers are like "you can do it! Keep going!". I know I can run effing 6 miles! I know I'm slow! Just shut up! It's pity cheering. You can hear it in their voices.

I have a routine for everything. I NEED routine. That is just how I am. Call it a character flaw if you want, but it's just something I need in order to function. I have a routine for folding laundry. I have a routine for eating my food. Everything has a routine. Everything is planned and thought out in advance. My routine for grocery shopping goes like this:
1. Get out all my recipes
2. Make menu for the week
3. Go through fridge and cabinets to figure out what ingredients I already have
4. Make grocery list
5. Go to grocery store
6. Start on the right side of the store and work my way down the aisles to the left side of the store (the produce section in all the grocery stores I use is on the right. I dont know what I will do if someday I go to one where the produce is on the left)

I HAVE to do it this way. And it all has to happen in one sitting. There is no making out the menu, then the next day going grocery shopping. No. It is one event. So imagine my delimma when I get to the grocery store only to discover......I HAVE FORGOTTEN MY LIST AT HOME! Oh. My. God. I nearly had an attack right there in the front of the store. I seriously stood there for a couple of minutes with my cart trying to decide if I should just get what I could remember, or if I should go home and get my list. I decided to try to shop without my list.

I should ALSO mention that I was not at my regular grocery store. I have gotten so fed up with the HyVee by my house as they have stopped carrying half the shit I need, and the last straw was when they stopped carrying the Farm to Market bread. That is the only kind of sourdough bread I like, I dont like the store bakery stuff. And since I was making baked potato soup last night, well, I needed sourdough bread. So I decided to try out the P Chop over at 95th & Mission. It's a lot nicer than the P Chop by our old house, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.

So there I am, in a new grocery store, without my list. AND, I was driving Dan's car. The Element is my grocery-getter, but he had taken off in it to go run some errands, and I didnt want to wait for him to get home so I could go to the store. This grocery trip just didnt not start out right from the beginning, my whole game was off. ANYWAY. One of the benefits of going to the store right after having made my menu and list is that it was all pretty fresh in my mind. So I could kind of go through my menu in my head and recreate my shopping list. Typically, I am able to just go down my list and cross things off as I put them in my cart. This trip required a bit more back tracking across the store as I remembered various other things I needed, that I had forgotten about my first trip down a certain aisle. But I did manage to get out of the store with pretty much everything I needed.

With a few exceptions. The good ol P Chop did not have regular pork breakfast sausage. I did not want maple flavored, or extra hot, or reduced fat (who uses reduced fat sausage??), I just wanted regular. They had the little price sign for it in the sausage freezer, but it was not there. I dug through it all. I guess everyone else wanted some too. It also took me a while to find the chicken. CHICKEN! The problem was that their meat counter is laid out different than the one at HyVee, and the chicken is in a different colored package than what HyVee uses too. But I did finally find it. BUT! P Chop packages their chicken 4 to a package. HyVee does it 3 to a package. I am used to figuring out how many packages of chicken I need based on the 3 to a package math. So this threw me off. I managed to find one 3-chicken package, so I got that and a 4-chicken package. I knew I needed 6 pieces of chicken for the week, so I dont know what I'll do with the lone leftover. I guess freeze it and hope that I can find another 3-chicken package next week to even it out.

So after having to stop every 5 minutes to try and re-figure what I needed, I made it out OK. I think I'll use this grocery store again, being that my experience was good despite the no-list issue, and wrong car issue. One downfall is that I do like the HyVee brand of a lot of stuff, but not the Best Choice generic brand that P Chop carries. So we'll see how the grocery budget comes out if I stop buying as much generic stuff.

Food is a big deal, people!

Well, that was a bad idea

2009-01-23T09:09:00.002-06:00

So, we all know I have issues with my pinky toes. Several weeks ago, I got a pretty big blister on one of them that eventually deflated, but the top layer of skin never reattached to my toe. So there was just sort of this empty pocket there. I finally got sick of it, and since I had last weekend off running, I decided to just cut the skin off. Big mistake! Just doing that made my toe feel like it was on fire. I ran 2 on Wednesday and it bothered me a little bit, but last night I did 4 and it killed. My toes had gotten nice and calloused up, and I basically just cut that whole layer off. So now I'm starting from scratch again. Ugh. I should have known better. The 14 I'm supposed to do tomorrow should be greeeeaaaat.

Speaking of those 14, it's supposed to be 9 degrees Saturday morning. NINE. That will make it even better! Last night when I ran, it was about 60. I was running outside at the end of January in shorts. Seriously, it is not cool to be teased with a day of weather like that, and then have it plummet to single digits. Sigh. Such is the life in Kansas.

The best of us can find happiness in misery

2009-01-12T09:38:00.002-06:00

I am always proud of myself for training. Because it's ALWAYS a struggle to go do it. I rarely think "oh gee, I just cant wait to go run/hop on my trainer/whatever". Once I'm out there doing it, I'm fine. It's just the getting out there part that is hard. I always have to have a little discussion with myself about the benefits of doing it, versus the negative aspect of not doing it. But some days I'm more proud of myself than others. Saturday was one of those days.

I had 12 miles planned, and I actually HAD been looking forward to it. Finally getting up in the higher mileage makes me happy. But, it was fuggin cold on Saturday. It was fuh-REE-zing. After my alarm went off, I stayed in bed for probably 20 minutes debating with myself about whether or not to go. Since it was the last run of the winter session, I figured I had better go though. So I got all bundled up and headed out. I'm not sure of the exact temperature, but I'd guess it was around 15 degrees. Oh, and did I mention the wind? Or the fact that it was a relatively hilly course? Fantastic.

We actually had a pretty large group because Eladio had opened it up to the Spring session participants, and a lot of them showed. Which was surprising, since it was so cold. My thought process during the whole ordeal went a little something like this....

Start-0.5 mile: Oh shit, I am going to get hypothermia and die, and probably frostbite on at least 50% of my body. I'm turning around now.
0.5 mile-mile 1: Ok, we're in the woods, there is no wind, I'm starting to warm up, this isnt so bad!
Mile 1-2: Holy mother of God! My ass is frozen and I'm going to die! I'm turning around now.
Miles 2-5: Ok, this isnt THAT bad, there are people to talk to, everyone is commenting on how badass my IM jacket is, I'm glad I showed up.
Mile 5-6: Fuck this half mile hill, fuck this wind, fuck running! I am turning around now.
Mile 6-7: Dear God, please let me die a quick death right this instant and put me out of my misery.
Miles 7-9: **laughing to self at all the lazy effers who stayed home in bed while I am out being a badass running 12 miles in the freezing cold on a Saturday morning**
Mile 9-10: Oh no, face is too frozen to talk without excruciating pain. Am pretty sure skin on cheeks is going to be cracked when I finish.
Mile 10-11: I am truly going to die. Right here on the spot. I hope someone notices my frozen carcas laying on the side of the rode and notifys my family of my untimely death.
Mile 11-12: Sweet Jesus, I am almost done! I love running, this is the best thing ever! I am going to run in the cold every night this week!!

Somewhere towards the end of the run, we were talking about what "runners high" is. For me, it is getting to the last mile of a long run and realizing that I am almost done and will be able to sit down and stop moving soon. Whoever said that acutally running gives you some sort of high was full of shit. Getting done is the best part. I'd also like to retract an earlier statement I made about liking to run in the cold. Because, I dont. I guess I had forgotten about how bad it sucks.

But, I did feel really good after I finished. I was really happy that I had drug myself out of bed to go run, despite the fact that it was 3 hours of sheer misery. After I got home, I stayed all bundled up, gloves and all, because I just couldnt stop shivering. It took me a good half an hour to get warmed up enough to stop shaking. It felt like the cold was just coming out of my bones. Then I felt like complete ass the rest of the day, even Chipotle didnt help me feel better. I dont know if it was the distance or the cold or a combination of the two, but I was completely wiped out. I better get used to it! We have this weekend off, then next weekend the spring session starts, and I dont have anything less than a 10 mile long run until the OKC marathon at the end of April. Cant wait!

I hate the gym in January!

2009-01-05T18:43:00.003-06:00

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for all the New Year's resolution people to come out and make the gym hell to go to. I was being a puss tonight and decided I'd trade running outside in the cold for running inside on the treadmill. I should have known better, it being the first Monday after New Years.

I pull up to the gym and both parking lots are packed. I should have just turned around and gone home at that point. But no, I was thinking maybe everyone was there for step class, or something. My second clue should have been the fact that every single first row locker was taken. It pisses me off when people dont use locks, because I go around opening 5 million lockers, all of them full of someone elses shit before I find an open one. At least if you use a lock I know it's taken. Next time I'm stealing something.

So I lock up my stuff and go upstairs, and of course all the treadmills are taken. Half of which were taken by fuckers who were just walking. Perfect. And the "jogging" track is clogged up with a bunch of walkers walking 4 wide making it impossible for anyone to run. But, I figured I'd attempt to run a few laps while I waited for a treadmill to open up. I'm running, dodging fat walkers left and right, along with a couple other poor souls who just wanted to run, I come back around to by the treadmills, and some guy is getting off. Fantastic! So I go over and hop on, and some fat bitch comes up and goes "EXCUSE ME!!!! I was wating for that for FIVE MINUTES!!!!". I said "yeah, so was I, I was just RUNNING while I did it." I almost added "you should try it, it might help" while looking her up and down giving her my best "you are fat and ugly and disgusting" look. But I didn't. I also let her have the damn treadmill. I'm getting soft in my old age. But hey, she had a good hundy on me so I didnt want to start anything that I wasnt sure I could win.

I couldnt stand the thought of trying to run on the track anymore, so I just left. On my way back into our neighborhood, I passed Dan on his way out. I knew he was headed up to the gym, so I called him and was like "dont EVEN bother, it is too fucking crowded". I wasnt going to let the fat fuck resolution people keep me from getting my workout in, so I threw on my running pants when I got home and finished up outside. Luckily I only had 2 miles planned for tonight. Unfortunately, I was still so pissed when I left the house that I forgot my headband and gloves and I froze.

I FUCKING HATE NEW YEARS RESOLUTION PEOPLE AT THE GYM!!! Gah, they make it virtually IMPOSSIBLE for anyone who actually does give two shits about their health to get anything done. Maybe if you tried actually working out YEAR ROUND you wouldnt be in such a frenzy to lose a few pounds in January after you just spent the last two months stuffing your face. I am just going to have to forego the gym on weeknights for the next month or so. I guess I shouldn't complain, at least I have enough balls to run outside on a below freezing January night.

PS- I apologize for all the F-bombs, but as this just happened tonight, my rage still has not subsided.

House, and other randomness

2008-12-30T13:07:00.024-06:00

Before I forget, let me add to the list of things my HyVee does not have:
Plain goat cheese, graham cracker and Oreo cookie crumbs, jalapenos (well they did, but only like 10 and I needed more), bite sized gold and flour tortilla Tostitos. GAH!

So, the past couple of weeks have been pretty void of any sort of training with all the craziness of the holidays. It has been a lot of fun, but I am definitely looking forward to pulling myself away from all the junk I've been eating and getting back to working out. But, it's fun for now. I was all set to go run 12 on Saturday, but I woke up at about 3am to 100mph winds (that may ben a bit of an exaggeration) and the power getting knocked out. Then when my alarm went off at 6:15, I woke to the sound of thunder and lightning and pouring down rain. I have had just about ENOUGH of running in thunderstorms, let alone thunderstorms at the end of December, so I decided to just skip it. So I just went back to sleep and rode my trainer for a bit when I got up. Apparently I wasnt the only one who didnt feel like running in that crap, in Eladio's weekly email he said that only 13 people showed up. Out of 200-some.

So anywho, after my second Saturday in a row of not running, I spent all damn day on Sunday giving the house a thorough cleaning. Usually I spend about 3 hours cleaning on Sundays, but we're having a NYE party and I wanted the thing spic and span. I live in constant fear of people coming over and thinking my house is dirty, and being that we'll have 30+ people in the house tomorrow night, I just couldnt risk any filth. It's a bad trait I picked up from my mom. I never understood why she cared what other people though of how clean the house was, now I do. I used to actually really enjoy cleaning. Having an apartment, and then a 700 sqft house made it pretty easy. And I might even venture to say, fun. But not now! It's not like our new house is a mansion of any sort, but it's much larger than what I'm used to and what I grew up in. So it takes way longer to clean. And it's pretty much all hardwoods except for the stairs and upstairs hallway and the master bedroom, and hardwoods are a pain in my ass to keep clean. Especially when you have 3 mongrels leaving their paw prints all over. But, it's better than having filthy carpet.

While I'm on the topic of the house here are some pics of it since not many people have seen it yet. We moved in Labor Day weekend, so have been here a few months. It still feels pretty empty to me though, I guess I need to go buy more stuff to fill it up!

All houses are ugly in the winter, so I didnt bother taking a picture of the outside. So here's one from the summer:
When you walk in, the living room is to your left. This room is still pretty empty except for our old couch and the Christmas tree. I havent painted this one yet or hung anything on the walls because I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do in here, and I dont know what color I want to paint it. Also, my parents are trying to pawn their piano off on me, so it would have to go in here which would affect what I can do.

Beyond the living room is the dining room. I did get this room painted, but I still need to get stuff up on the walls besides the one lone mirror. After I painted, we put up the new light fixture. The one that came with the house was UG-LY, so it needed to go immediately. I am also wanting to get the china cabinet that goes with my table, which would go on the wall to the right. When you walk in the front door, straight ahead of you is the family room. It has dark wood paneling, which I hate. Dan, and apparently everyone else that comes over, loves it. I think it makes the room too dark and makes it look like a hunting lodge. It is really nice paneling, I just dont care for it. I would say this room is the most set up of any of them in the house. I still need to get a couple more things up on the walls, something above the love seat and something between the mirror and the window. I ordered an area rug which should be here this week, so that will help warm it up a bit too.
And of course, no family room is complete without the huge-ass 50" tv. Actually, it looks kind of small here. Maybe we should have gone for the 60"!

And here's where all the magic happens! No, not the bedroom. Pervs. My kitchen! This is the main thing I would change about the house. It's not a bad kitchen per se, just outdated. And I really dislike the layout. There is a U-shaped area between the stove, sink and dishwasher, then you have to walk to the other side of the kitchen for the oven. Just not a very efficient layout. I told Dan our first major project is tearing the whole thing out and making it bigger and better. But, that's going to be an expensive undertaking, so it will be a while. This is livable for now though. I painted that color, it was yellow when we moved in. I want a green kitchen. I'm still not sure how I feel about this green though, it turned out a little brighter than I was planning. I'm in no mood to repaint a room I just did though, so it will just have to do. And your eyes do not deceive you, that is in fact a sweet vintage parquet floor!

See my fancy washer and dryer back there!? I love doing laundry now! This house has a gas hook up for the dryer, so we HAD to get a new one since our old set was electric. HAD to. There's also a half bath over there across from the W&D. Three toilets in the house is a luxury when you are coming from a house with only one tiny bathroom!

I'm saving up pictures of food to put on that blank wall, I think it should look pretty nice. I just need to get a couple more. The oven is just to the right of the doorway into the family room (see, far away from the stove and sink!), and it is the tiniest oven I have ever seen. We barely fit the Thanksgiving turkey in it.

The house is a split level, so you go up half a flight and there is the master bedroom and another bedroom, then up another half flight for the other 2 bedrooms. This is on the landing in front of the master bedroom to kind of give you an idea. To the left is one bedroom, behind me is the master:

So, the front bedroom I have no idea what to do with. The guest bedroom is upstairs, and we only have one spare bed at this point. We're thinking about putting another bed or a futon in here or something for the dogs, but right now my bike lives here and we keep the dog crates in here. Oh, and Dan uses this closet, which means I have my own closet all to myself! I'm painting this room next, I'm thinking red. I have always wanted a red room, so now I'm going to give myself one.

Here's the master, I really havent done anything with this room yet either. It took me a while to figure out what color I wanted to paint it, and I finally decided. So I'll do this one after I paint the front bedroom. I'm kind of dreading it though, because it's goign to mean painting all the trim and doors since the previous owner had the brilliant idea of painting them green. Can't wait!

Here's the master bath, exciting I know. Gotta love the original green tile all over everything. We'll eventually gut it, but for now it's livable.
Note all the room in front of the toilet. If you saw our old house before we redid the bathroom, you know that you had to sit sideways on the toilet because it was so close to the vanity and there wasnt enough room for your knees. So this bathroom is huge in comparison. You could put a footstool there and just stretch out.
I didnt take a picture of the guest bedroom because I hadnt washed the sheets since the last person had stayed over, and I didnt feel like making the bed just to take a picture.

Here is the purple office! Obviously, I havent really set this room up yet either. We got the computer hooked up, so that was a major accomplishment in itself. I'll paint this room after the master bedroom, so once I get that done I'll figure out how I want to decorate and arrange it.

Here is the guest bath. When we moved in, it was BRIGHT yellow. I dont know who thought that was a good idea, because it wasnt. At all. This is much better I think.

And, there's your tour. Oh, there's a basement, but it has orange utility carpet and is kind of ugly, so I didnt bother taking any pictures. There IS a bar down there though, which is kind of cool. It's a vintage 70's model with the padded edge and all. Pretty sweet.

Good thing I enjoy painting, because I still have a lot of it to do!

HyVee

2008-12-17T17:40:00.002-06:00

I registered today for my first race of next season, HyVee. Well, it's not chronologically the first, but the first one I've signed up for. So Bryce, this means I'm officially coming with you. Tim, I'm guessing you'll be there too.

I did so despite my recent frustrations with my neighborhood HyVee. FIRST, on Sunday I was doing my weekly grocery shopping, and they didnt have crushed tomatoes. At all. I was making chili and I needed some damn crushed tomatoes! I like my chili thick, not soupy, so I just needed them. And HyVee didnt have any. Well, they had "Italian style', the kind with basil. That would not work for chili. So I pretty much went into an immediate rage, which I tend to do when I can't find something I want/need, and it ruined the rest of my shopping. Then I had to go to the WalMart Neighborhood Market across the street to get my stupid tomatoes. I despise WalMart and all they stand for, but I was not driving my ass all over town looking for crushed tomatoes.

THEN, last night I stopped at HyVee to get some white chocolate chips for the cookies I was going to make for our "neighborhood traveling goodie plate" (more on that later) and they didnt have any! They didnt have any fucking white chocolate chips! GAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! You can imagine the rage this sent me into, since that was the only thing I went to the store for. So again, I had to go over to WalMart. WalMart is directly across Metcalf, but it took me damn near 10 minutes just to get over there because everyone was driving like such a moron because there was a little bit of snow on the road. Then the damn cookies didnt even turn out that great and now I have to redo them. Fuckin'A.

So, the traveling neighborhood goodie plate. On Sunday, the neighbor girl brought over a plate of cookies. Great. Fantastic. It was only after we started eating them that we realized there was writing on the plate. I shit you not, this is what it says:

This is our traveling
NEIGHBORHOOD PLATE
To say "We love you! We think you're great!"
Enjoy these goodies we have for you,
then here is what you have to do...
Fill it with treats and pass it along,
Share love with your neighbor-
and dont wait too long!

So basically, I HAVE to make cookies and take them to one of the neighbors. Then the plate goes on to get a little more pushy and tells me to hurry the F up. I dont think I like this plate.

Double D's

2008-12-15T08:41:00.002-06:00

I finally hit double digits on a run. Before I even got out of bed Saturday morning, I could hear the wind blowing outside. It was rattling the windows, and just generally making it sound like not a good day for a run. When I opened the front door to step outside to check the temperature, I truly would not have been surprised to see a damn cow blow by. It was that windy. But the temperature was actually really nice, somewhere around 50. So the wind could be tolerated.

For some reason, the 11:40 pace group is really small. Like only six of us. The 12:00 group is really big, and the 11:20 group is really big, but not ours. We started off at Ward Parkway Mall, I LOVE this route. We run up through Brookside, in the neighborhoods around Loose Park, and this day cut over into Mission Hills. I love running through these neighborhoods. There were two other gals in my group going 10 miles, so I had some company the entire way. About half a mile before we turned around, we were just running along chatting when a HUGE branch crashed down about 3 feet in front of us. This was no twig, it for sure would have caused some major damage if it had hit one of us. Thats how windy it was, the trees were blowing apart.

I felt really good the whole run, didnt have a problem keeping up the pace, even with the wind in my face the entire way back. My IT bands did start tightening up, so I guess it's time to break out the ol' foam roller now that my mileage is starting to get higher. And I know I said after my last run that I was going to start taping my toes, but of course I forgot. So I ended up with a couple of good blisters on my pinky toes. One toe hadn't healed up completely from last week, so it was blister on blister. Those are always fun.

Of course you all know that the Kona broadcast was on Saturday. Court came over to watch, and we had a good time discussing what a princess Macca is, and laughing at the footage of Stadler freaking out in 2005 that they will probably be showing every year until the day we die. Also decided that we need to be friends with Chrissie Wellington because she's just too stinking cute. Then we concluded the night by the four of us going down to Ponaks and going through about 2 and a half pitchers of margaritas. Tasty!

And this is completely unrelated, but I was telling Cout and Eric about how Norman Rockwell our neighborhood is, and this illustrates it perfectly. We moved into our house at the end of August, so we're not NEW new. But last night the people around the corner from us had a "lets welcome the new neighbors" party. There have been a couple of other families move in this fall, so it wasnt just us. It was actually really fun! I just cant get over how friendly everyone is and how tight-knit this neighborhood seems to be. A lot of the couples there were older, like 50's or 60's, but there were a few younger couples. One of which just moved in on Saturday and seem like the kind of people we would hang out with anyway. The old timers were talking about how they all go down to the neighborhood pool in the summer and drink beer, all the get togethers they have, taking their kids trick or treating while pulling a case of beer, and so on and so forth. We also found out that everyone thinks the lady we purchased our house from was a complete bitch, which was kind of funny since we got that impression when we met her. The people who hosted the party have the same layout as us, so it was interesting to see what they've done with their house and how completely different it is than ours, even though it's got the same floor plan. So yes, I live in some sort of movie where the neighbors actually like each other and hang out.

Oh, and has anyone ever heard of a cat having an "emotional eating" problem? Because apparently our neihbors cat does.

Life ain't a track meet, it's a marathon

2008-12-08T11:18:00.002-06:00

I had to skip RE last weekend due to some family stuff, and didn't do a whole lot of running in the interim. I DID get up and run on Thanksgiving morning though. However, uh, that was the last time before Saturday. So instead of doing the 10 that I had on my schedule, I decided to just do 8. BUT! I moved up a pace group. That's right folks, I graduated myself from the 12 min/mile group to the 11:40 min/mile group. I know, I know. That is smokin fast. Try not to hate.

So, we set out, all 4 of us in our little pace group. I'm finding that I like the winter session of RE because the groups are much smaller than the spring and fall sessions. Anyway. We were just chugging along by the river in Parkville, having a nice conversation, and I was feeling good. It was probably 40 degrees, which is amazing for December. I didnt even need a jacket, just 2 layers. Got out to the turnaround, and it was just the pace group leader and I heading back. So we just set off at our own pace, we've got pretty similar strides so fell into a rhythm pretty quickly. We were just going along chatting it up, and her Garmin kept beeping because we were GOING TOO FAST. We were clipping along at about 10:45/mile! Now, I know most people wouln't be happy with going that "slow", but for someone me who, well, you've seen my race times, that was pretty good. And it felt good too. So, maybe there is hope for me to break a 30 minute 5K yet!

Sunday I was going to go to the gym, but had been out of the house all day so I just didnt feel like leaving again. So....I set up my trainer and hopped on that for the first time in, oh, since before IMFL. Man, I forgot how tough that thing is! I was laid out on my bike, getting into my grove, rockin' out to some JT (and maybe some old school Ice Cube - I mean, lets be honest. Is there any better song for spinning than "You Can Do It"? I think not. If you dont believe me, put it on your ipod and jump on the trainer. You'll see.) when drip, drip, drip, on my front wheel. I had sweat dripping off my forehead. And that was after like 15 minutes. I do NOT sweat. Well, not enough for it to be dripping off of me. So, I actually felt like I was actually DOING something for the first time in quite a while. I really miss long rides, so I'm looking forward to getting back out on my bike once it's nice out. Maybe this year I'll ride over to Lawrence and actually make it to Chipotle like I always planned!

Well whaddya know, I can run

2008-11-24T16:15:00.004-06:00

So, I ran 6 miles on Saturday. My longest run in over a year. LAME! But it felt awesome! Like nothing at all. Oh, and did I mention it was like 25 degrees out? Well it was. I really do like running in the cold once I get acclimated to it, and apparently I'm acclimated. I love not feeling like my body is about to catch on fire, I love not feeling like I'm about to pass out from heat stroke, I love slathering my face in Vaseline to protect it from wind burn, I love getting frost all over the outside of my jacket from the sweat freezing (though it wasn't QUITE cold enough for that yet) and I love the feeling of realizing that my ass and thighs are completely frozen once I stop moving. Weird, I know.

Planning on 8 miles next weekend. If that goes well, 10 the following weekend. I can't wait to get back up into double digit mileage! I also fully plan on getting up Thanksgiving morning and getting a good 3 miles in before sit down and eat 5 lbs of food.

To the peeps at my gym

2008-11-20T16:39:00.002-06:00

I'm taking my cue from Robyn on this one. I'm no trainer, and I'm no expert, but now that I've been back in the gym regularly for a bit now I have GOT to comment on some of this stuff.

Back Hair Dude: No. Please, dont wear a wife beater to the gym. Ever. Or anywhere else in public. Because it just makes me want to avoid any piece of equipment that your back hair has been touching. Actually, you probably shouldnt wear it in your house either, because someone might see through the window or come to the door. Now, I realize that MOST guys have some back hair. That is fine. But when it's black and curly and crawls up your neck and down your arms...thats where I (and most other ladies) draw the line.

High School Kids: This is not the mall. Or wherever else you all like to hang out these days. To the girls, running around in ass shorts giggling and trying to do I dont know WHAT that was with a bar that weighs more than you do, is not cute. You're likely to break your damn necks that way. And to the boys, uh, I know you're trying to impress the little twits, but you cannot do curls with 50 lb weights. My arms are actually bigger than yours, so yeah.

Asian Guy: I'm sorry I laughed. But it was too damn funny watching you jump up trying to grab on to the pull up bar. You're 4'6", get a step!

Asian Guy's Wife: Do you understand the concept of personal space? Because standing a foot away from me while I'm lifting is getting in my personal space. Do I need to draw a bubble around myself? Please step off.

MILF: I get it. You're skinny and you've got big fake knockers. That you like to show off. You look pretty good for 50. I'll give you that. But seriously, learn to put stuff away after you're done. I dont like having to unload the Smith machine after you get done with it (even though you were doing squats with 10 lb weights, what!? I use more that that for calf raises), and I dont like tripping and nearly killing myself becaue you left some weights on the floor next to the bench. I'm also sure that the dude you were flirting with was NOT your husband, and I really dont care, but please try to not fake laugh so loud. If I can hear you over my headphones, it's too loud. You're just making yourself look ridiculous.

And to the moms who bring their little kids into the gym: STOP! There is a mf-ing daycare provided!!! I do NOT need your kids running around screaming and bumping into me while I'm trying to work out. I dont appreciate them playing with the equipment that I'm needing to use, and then getting dirty looks from you when I ask if they could move. Keep them in check. Better yet, keep them OUT of the gym. Kthx.

No, I'm not dead

2008-11-19T16:03:00.006-06:00

I'm back. For real this time. I swear! It has been a lazy, joyous year of sitting on my butt getting fat. Well, that may be an exaggeration. But it has been nice not doing anything. Obviously I wasnt ready. Moved into a new house, Court got married, lots has been going on. So it's not like I've been bored.

But for some reason, when it started getting close to IMFL this year, I started getting that itch again. Wishing that I was doing the race. Wishing I was in good enough shape to even THINK about doing the race. Plus, Court's wedding was that same weekend, and Robyn was back for it. So between Court and I reminiscing and talking to R about her experience at IMLOU this year, it got me excited about racing again next year. I had forgotten how much fun it is to have races to look forward to!

So I got my ass in gear and signed up for the winter session of RE. I picked a spring marathon, and made out a training schedule for myself. Last Saturday was the first day of RE and it was GREAT to be back. Lots of familiar faces, lots of new ones, and best of all....I finally got to wear my IM finishers jacket that I bought last year! Yup, I bought the damn thing and then never ran last winter so I never wore it. It's the little things :) I only went 4 miles, but I have been running MAYBE twice a week, like a mile and a half each time. So I felt good about that. It was a little frustrating because my heart and lungs used to far outlast my legs. Not so much anymore! I was having a hard time carrying on a conversation by the time I turned around at 2 miles. But I did it, and it felt good, and I enjoyed it. So that is the important thing. And I know my body knows what to do, so the fitness will come back quickly. I've also been lifting twice a week, which I love. I didnt life AT ALL while I was training for Florida, so it's nice to be back in the gym. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. So now the plan is to concentrate on running and lifting, then start adding in some biking and swimming after the first of the year. I'll be back to my old self in no time!

Without further ado, I present Julie's Tentative 2009 Race Schedule! Of course, I havent completely gone over this with the hubs yet. I think he enjoyed a summer of not being drug along to a race every weekend :)

April 26: Oklahoma City Marathon
May 17: Heritage Park Triathlon
June 6: QuarterMax Triathlon
June 14: Kansas 70.3 Triathlon (Alcatraz is also this weekend, and I considered throwing my name in the hat for the lottery, but that can wait!)
June 28: HyVee Triathlon
July 12: Shawnee Mission Triathlon
August 1: Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon
August ???: UltraMax event in KC - I am SO excited about this, now they just need to announce a date and venue!
September 12: OMC Women's Triathlon

I'm also kicking around the idea of the Chicago marathon, which would be mid-October. I'm still thinking I want to do the 50 States, so getting 2 marathons a year would be a good pace. And Court is trying to talk me into doing the Redman Full with her in Oklahoma on September 19th. MAYBE the half if they have any general entry slots (it's the Halfmax National Championship next year, another good reason to do it since UM is putting it on). Since I'm already doing the OKC marathon in April, I dont want to waste 2 races on one state since full IM distance races count towards the 50 States :)

Why I had to miss Kansas 70.3

2008-06-17T09:45:00.005-05:00

My sister-in-law got married over the weekend in Colorado, it was lovely! I didnt, however, enjoy the 9 hour drive. But, I didnt have to do any of the driving, so it was OK. The last couple of times we've gone to CO I have checked out a book on CD from the library, but I think I missed half of this one because I kept falling asleep.

I also discovered that Colorado is a bit more rigid with their alcohol. We ate at a mexican place and they had a 3 margarita limit! Granted, they were some strong magaritas, but no stronger than Ponaks. They wouldnt even let us get a pitcher! But other than that, it was a nice time :)

The happy bride and groom

The reception location

And those of you who only know me through my blog probably think I always look like ass since the only pictures you ever see of me are from a race. So here is proof that I actually clean up nicely.

Tag, I'm it

2008-06-16T15:05:00.002-05:00

I've been tagged by Morgan.....who is apparently in Runners Edge and I didnt know it! Well, i guess perhaps I would have known if I had been going :) So anyway, here goes:

1. How would I describe my running 10 years ago?
Nada. 10 years ago I was in college, and MAYBE worked out a couple of times a month. Running was never involved though, and it sounded like a horrible way to exercise. I thought anyone who ran marathons was stupid.

2. What is your best and worst race experience?
The worst was HalfMax in 2006. That was my one and only DNF to date. It was awful. It was painful, and humiliating. It made me never want to do another race again. Conversely, my best race experience was HalfMax 2007! (surprised that it's not IMFL?? :) Since it had been so awful the year before, finishing it the second time around was awesome. I loved every second of the race, and was more than trained for it. It was great.

3. Why do you run?
It is sort of an means to an end. I HAVE gotten to the point where I usually enjoy it, but typically it's to fulfill some higher goal. Like finishing a tri, or maybe shooting for the 50-States club.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?
Like Morgan said, the best piece of advice that I have ever gotten is that you are only competing against yourself. I am slow. I mean, 70-year old woman slow. Slow slow. I will never win any age group awards....unless maybe I'm still running when I'm 85 and I'm the only one in my AG. I used to be embarassed about my pace, but pretty soon I realized that nobody else thinks anything of it, so I shouldnt either. Nobody is looking at me thinking "damn, that chick is slow". Well, maybe they are, but they keep it to themselves! So I just stopped caring about how fast or slow I run in comparison to other people and decided to focus on how fast or slow I run in comparison to my own previous times.

5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
Anyone who has been reading my blog for the past year knows quite a bit, so lets see..... I'm so terrified of spiders that I have started going to a different floor to use the bathroom at work because 2 of the ceiling tiles are missing in the one on my floor, and I'm afraid a spider will jump out onto me. Even if I'm not in the stall under the missing tiles.

And I would tag people, but pretty much everyone I know who blogs has already been tagged :P

A little motivation

2008-05-30T11:28:00.003-05:00

Some days, I look down at my M-dot and think "gee, I really dont deserve this". Usually it's when I'm sitting on the couch feeling guilty about deciding to stay in and watch an episode of CSI that I've already seen 5 times rather than go for a run. More often than not, if I'm looking at it while I'm in the process of trying to decide "CSI or run", it will motivate me to go out and run.

It's funny that 7 months (and 10, erh, 15 lbs) later I can still be motivated and pushed along by my Ironman experience even though I'm not really training for anything, and have no plans to train for any big races in the near future. While I was training, it was the thought of finishing that motivated me, and I guess it's still the same today. And I think now 140.6 miles seems longer than it did before I completed it.

Dawn had this posted on her blog, I found it pretty relevant:

Ironman It follows you everywhere. Like an ever-present shadow or an alter ego, and at times it can follow you like an annoying guilt-inducing time management stalker. But most often it follows you around as a confidence-inspiring best friend. Ironman is always with you.

You realize in this crazy and dynamic sport that Ironman is not just a logo on the products that appear everywhere around us---on supermarket shelves, in clothing stores and bike stores. Ironman is not just a race or a goal. Ironman is a life-changing experience that irrevocably gifts you with intense lessons about yourself and a fitness level that is often unsurpassed.

Whether you are training to race in your first Ironman, or you’ve finished nine World Championship Ironman races in Hawaii, this experience stays with you. When you mention the words of Ironman triathlon to other people, it changes things. It changes things in you, and it changes things in them. Telling someone you’re an Ironman or that you are going to do one commits you in a binding way. It has been said that when you fully commit to something or someone, you find it easier to tell other people. It’s also been said that once you are fully committed to something or someone, you are bound by your word and your internal commitment to yourself.

Wearing an Ironman T-shirt opens the door for people to talk to you in airports, on the street, or in restaurants. And like a club with a secret handshake, when you see other people who have finished an Ironman, there is a silent understanding. Most relationships are forged with a common experience, and the bond of experiencing an Ironman is one that breaks conventional relationship boundaries. Just go to Kona---or Lake Placid or France---to witness people from all over the world with ultra-diverse backgrounds becoming part of a very special and supportive family.

With the commitment to train and race in an Ironman, you’ve started along the yellow brick road that will present you with far more than the lions and tigers and bears of your own self-doubt and fear. Training gives you a strong heart, physiologically and emotionally. Racing will grant you courage. Finishing will give you dauntless confidence. This yellow brick road to Kona, Hawaii---or to any Ironman race worldwide---will be jammed with lessons. You’ll rapidly learn that biking shoes are like ice skates on the slippery floors of grocery stores and that a bike can seem just a few pounds lighter than your running shoes. You will also learn very difficult lessons that will shake and sort your priorities in life like a powerful earthquake, revealing the basic truths that support who is really important to you.

If you’re not myopically focused on the size of your chain ring, or your finishing time, then Ironman just may teach you what you honestly value in your life. You will learn the basic lessons of what to eat, how to train, and how to run a marathon after being glued to your bike seat for more than 112 miles. You will learn that the wind, the rain, the heat and the struggle are often overshadowed, even forgotten, when you reach the last few miles of an Ironman and find the courage to break through your own boundaries. It is inevitable that when you watch an Ironman, or when you do an Ironman, the words never or never again will pass through your mind as you click your running shoes together at mile 15 of the run and say, “I wish I was home, I wish I was home.” But then you’ll realize that it’s within the Ironman experience that you just may find yourself more at home than laying in your bed on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Ironman may follow you like a shadow, but like all kids, you’re destined to find out that your shadow is a mere representative image cast by an object blocking illuminating rays. And that object is you, rebuilt with the adventurous fortitude of the Ironman experience. Let your running shoes click together in your next stride and glance down at your shadow. You’re home.

New goal

2008-05-21T12:52:00.000-05:00

I have to get faster. I HAVE to. I NEED to be faster. So, last night I started working on it. I ran 2 miles in 18:35. That is pretty darn fast for me! I would like to be able to run a sub-30 5K by the end of the summer, I think it's doable. Especially if I pick one with a flat course. I never did any speed work last year (I know, bad Ironman training), so I'm kind of looking forward to have something new and different to work on this summer. I've accepted the fact that I have now trained for and raced the longest distance I will ever cover, so speed is going to need to replace distance in my training.

Oh, and someone found my blog this week by googling "triathlons and dislike of swimming". Is it that obvious?!!?

I earned a burrito!

2008-05-19T09:03:00.002-05:00

There are only two instances in which I feel justified eating an 1100 calorie Chipotle burrito: after a long workout (and I haven’t had any of those recently) or after a race. So what did I have for lunch yesterday?? Chipotle, of course!

For not having trained much this spring, Heritage Park went surprisingly well. My friend Audrey came out to watch and take pics, so hopefully she’ll have some up on her blog soon since I told Dan not to bother bringing my camera. I think this might be the first race where I’ve had absolutely NO nervousness at all beforehand. Which was definitely nice, because it meant no emergency trips to the port-a-john right before the start.

My swim time was about a minute slower than last year, which I’m OK with considering this was my first OWS of the season. Ok, I lied, it was my first swim at all since IMFL. I guess that’s not a total lie, because it WAS my first OWS…..it just happened to be my first swim of any sort. But it went OK, and I was happy to see that I hadn’t forgotten how to swim. I was also pleased that my wetsuit still fit. My only problem was that I discovered when we got down there that I was out of anti-fog, so I just had to lick out my goggles, which never works as well. So they kept fogging over and I had to stop a couple of times to sight.

The bike was a little bit of a different story. I didn’t have trouble with it or anything, it was just SLOW. Last year I averaged 17.8 mph on the bike leg, this year I averaged 14.1. Uh yeah, guess I need to be riding more. It’s kind of frustrating to have lost so much strength on the bike, but I know it’s just a matter of getting back out there and riding regularly. So no worries. Bryce passed me as I was starting my second loop and he was starting his first, I was a little concerned that he might lap me before I finished, but I managed to stay ahead of him.

The run was actually OK, I kept an 11:07 pace, which isn’t too bad for me. Last year I had a 10:42 pace, and I had been doing a LOT more running in the spring since I had just done Lincoln marathon a few weeks before. I felt good on the whole run, just walked through the two aid stations and ran the rest of the time. I saw Bryce as he was heading out on an out-and-back portion and I was finishing it, and figured he would catch me since he’s a much faster runner, but he didn’t until RIGHT at the very end, I crossed the finish line literally about a second before he did. Of course, his swim heat started 15 minutes after mine, but whatever, I still won.

My overall time was 1:34:02, about 7 minutes slower than last year, but about 7 minutes faster than 06.

Audrey ended up having an extra ticket to the Brigade game since her husband had an early soccer game, so I spent the afternoon with her at that. Good times. It was my first AFL game, a little different, but still fun. I would like to note that we were sitting behind a group of swingers. Dudes don’t rub each others’ shoulders. They just don’t.

Wetsuit for HP

2008-05-15T15:33:00.000-05:00

I see a lot of people have been finding my blog this week based on a Google search of "heritage park triathlon wetsuit", or some form of that. It's funny to see the ways people find your blog, I think the funniest one I ever got was "peeing while running", but I digress.

Yes, wear a wetsuit. The water temp is about 64 degrees, which is damn cold. Last year, most people wore a wetsuit, and we'd had a warmer spring than we have this year. I will be wearing mine....assuming it still fits.

What is the point?!

2008-05-13T09:30:00.001-05:00

So, my first race of the season is coming up this Sunday, Heritage Park. You'd think I would be excited for it like I always have been in the past, but I'm just not this year. I think mostly due to the fact that last wekend I realized that the entire race is going to take less time than my swim at IM. Well, SHOULD take less time than my swim. So either a) I am a really slow swimmer, or b) HP is just a really short course. I think a combination of the two. I'm sitting here thinking, what is the point of a 90 minute race! Really, dragging my ass out of bed at 5am for a race that short just doesnt hold the same appeal that it used to.

Not to mention, in years past I've had a pretty good sized group of friends doing the race, but this year I only know one other person who is doing it. It's always fun to have your friends there, but this time it will be just Dan and Bryce, who will just be on the lookout for the chick in the school girl outfit. Oh well. While I'm on my bike and when I'm running, I'll just remind myself "hey, at least you're not still swimming!". BUT, I'm sure it will be fun, I just need to get there. Here's my recap of last years race:

http://tri-chick-julie.blogspot.com/2007/05/heritage-park.html

Penny gives Heritage Park a big 'ol stink eye!

Ok, Ok, I get it!

2008-04-28T15:18:00.003-05:00

I have been informed by multiple sources that I suck for not updating my blog, so here goes. I finally got another job and just started last week. So that is good. I had a nice 4 month hiatus....too bad the weather was craptastic the entire time. You would think that with all that free time I might have been motivated to do some serious training, but no. I just sat on the couch watching Food Network and Lifetime, getting fatter and fatter. Ok well I didn't get fat, but I sure feel like a lardo after 5 months of barely working out.

I did finally sign up for my first race of the season, Heritage Park tri the 18th of May. At least, I think it's the 18th. Obviously I'm not nearly as concerned with the details, like when races actually are, as I was last year. And now that the weather is starting to turn nice again, I'm actually beginning to get the itch to get out there and train. Of course, I havent really scratched that itch yet, but it's coming!

I've ridden my bike a total of once, swam zero times, and run an average of maybe once a week. So yeah, I need to get my butt in gear for HP. It's just a sprint and I can handle it no problem, but I dont exactly want to come out with a worse time than last year. Also, I aged up this year. I'm now competing in the 30-34 AG. Yikes! No more 20-somethings for me. Maybe I should go run after work.

In other news, we just got done remodeling the bathroom. And I say "done", meaning that the bathroom is functional, it's not quite finished yet. Our house was built in the 50's and the bathroom looked like it hadnt been updated since then. I know it had, but it was still in pretty bad shape. Yellow tile covering the entire room, oversized vanity directly across from the toilet that required you to sit sideways on the toilet, rotting window frame in the shower that sprouted mushrooms last summer, the works. Yes, we actually had mushrooms growing IN the shower. Dan did most of the work with the help of a few guys who know more what they're doing, and it looks pretty good for a few amateurs who gave it the ol' college try. Just dont look too closely at the walls. (see Dan, I talk about you in my blog)

Next up on the home repair list, replacing the kitchen counters and back splash and installing a tile floor, and refninishing the hardwoods in the rest of the house. Then it will be time to put it on the market and hope it doesnt take a year to sell.

Back in the Saddle

2008-03-05T16:00:00.002-06:00

Well, I guess I'm not technically back in the saddle since I haven't been on my bike yet since November, but I'm at least working out. I took almost 3 full month off from doing anything physical, I figured I just needed the break. And it has been oh so nice not HAVING to get up early to go run or whatever. I signed up for Runners Edge again and went to the first session at the end of January, then skipped every week until this last weekend. It's just so hard getting on a schedule again! But I finally feel like I'm ready to really start training again.

People keep asking me what races I'm doing this year, and I truly dont know yet. This time last year I had my whole season mapped out, and now I have nothing. I know I dont want to do anything longer than an Oly and a half marathon. No half IM's, and no marathons for me this year. Long mileage just doesnt sound appealing right now.

So, I will PROBABLY be doing the following races, though I havent really taken the time or effort to look up any race calendars to see when things are.
- Heritage Park Tri
- Hospital Hill half mary
- Shawnee Mission long course
- KC Womens Tri
- Quarter Max

I hear there's another all women's tri in the area this year, but I dont know when. So maybe that one too. It's SO nice not having to be as hard core and serious about it as I was last year! I still want to do more IM's in the future, but not for a long while. And some day soon, i will get my bike down out of the rafters and actually clean it off so I can start riding again. It still has my IMFL numbers and dried, sticky Gatorade all over it.

In other news, I got laid off from my job in December. I'm still not working, but at least I've finally started getting called for interviews. Where was all this free time when I was training for Florida!?

The art of IM

2007-12-10T16:09:00.000-06:00

It's a dreary Monday afternoon, and Court and I are both bored at work. So we spent the afternoon creating portraits of each other. I think we are true arteests.....

My depiction of Court riding her bike along Front Beach Road:

Courts rendering of my finish:

Thoughts 1 month post race

2007-12-03T17:33:00.000-06:00

It’s exactly one month since Ironman. The black eye is gone, the tattoo is healed up, and my feet are starting to look normal again. Well, my pinky toes are permanently deformed, but my blisters and calloused have peeled off. One month ago today I was just starting the run. I was less than 26 miles from the end of my day, and from the end of my year-long journey.

I guess now that I’ve had some time to sit back and reflect on things, I can allow myself to be a little philosophical :) Ironman isn’t one day. It starts the day you sign up and doesn’t end until you cross the finish line a year later. It’s also not just about you. It’s about every single one of your friends and family members that is going to be making sacrifices right along with you. They say that the top two causes of arguments between married couples are sex and money. If you’re training for Ironman, add a third to that list.

I learned that I am much stronger than I ever thought I was. I’ll admit, I’ve always been the type who wanted and expected things to come easy. Ironman doesn’t come easy. I am so proud of myself for finishing that race, but I am even more proud of everything I did to get to that finish line. I was up by 5am EVERY SINGLE Saturday starting in January so that I could go for a long run. I cried during more workouts than I care to admit. I ran 14 miles during the worst thunderstorm of the year, and was disappointed in myself because it was supposed to have been a 20 miler. I ran on feet that were so badly blistered it hurt to even touch them. I learned how to put my cassette back together when it fell apart in the middle of nowhere and it was either figure it out, or carry my bike 15 miles back to my car. I rode 60 miles in heat that was so bad that I passed out under a tree as soon as I got off my bike. I carried my bike through a creek because the bridge was out and dammit, we were going to finish that ride. I beat a race that beat me the year before.

I didn’t WANT to do any of that. I didn’t WANT to get up early, or destroy my feet, or go home when everyone else was going out because I had an early run in the morning. Because all of that stuff sucks, and it’s hard, and it made me cry. But I wanted to be an Ironman, and I knew that I was going to love that finish line more than I hated everything I had to do to get to it. And I did. Every single thing I did to finish was absolutely worth it. And it made me realize that I CAN do anything I set my mind to. Anyone can. If you want it bad enough, and are willing to put in the time and the effort, anything is possible. Just like there is no crying in baseball, there are no excuses in Ironman. “I’m too tired, I’m too busy, I don’t feel like it” are not part of the vocabulary of an Ironman. You do the work before you even get to race day, the race is the fun part. That’s when you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. That’s when you get to say “suck it!” to all the people who gave you a raised eyebrow, or rolled their eyes, or told you how crazy you were when you talked about your training.

Crossing the finish line wasn’t emotional for me. I had thought it would be, but it wasn’t. I was exhausted and thrilled to be able to finally sit down. But now it is emotional. Now that I get to think about all that went into it, I can realize just how big of a deal it was. I went through the lowest of lows, and the highest of highs, and I can be proud of myself.

So um, what now?

2007-11-26T16:09:00.000-06:00

I did my Ironman. Go me! But now what am I supposed to do!? I had planned on taking 2-week minimum break, and then start running and swimming again as I felt like it. But I've pretty much been sick the entire three weeks since we got back from Florida. I finally felt like I was starting to get better, but then I woke up Saturday morning with what felt like the flu. Fantastic. So now it's more resting and no working out for me. Not that I mind, it's kind of nice to have the break. And I cant say I'm surprised I've been sick for so long, I did kind of put my body through quite an ordeal. I guess this is it's revenge.

But now I have to figure out what I want to do after I get sick. As appealing as it may sound, I cant sit on my couch and eat ice cream for 3 meals a day and get fat. So, maybe a couple of marathons next year? Few tri's thrown in for good measure? Something else? Who knows. All I know for sure is that I am putting no pressure on myself next season to do any certain races. I'm just going to go with the flow.

For right now I'm excited to be able to get back to cooking what I want and watching my tv shows on the day they air, instead of trying to catch up on a weeks worth of Days and Grays on Sunday afternoons as I lay on the couch recovering from a long ride. And as lame as it sounds, I'd kind of like to take a knitting class. Couldnt think about that while I was training!

Tattoo time

2007-11-15T12:00:00.001-06:00

Yep, go ahead and add me to the list of people who have immortalized their Ironman accomplishment with an M-Dot tattoo. This is my 4th tat, it's nice to finally get one that I earned :)

Mine is on the left (inside of my ankle), Courts is on the right (back of her ankle)

Blood, Sweat, Tears, Ironman

2007-11-08T13:44:00.000-06:00

I set my alarm for 4am on Saturday, and was actually able to sleep until it went off. But as soon as it did, I was wide awake. I get to do an Ironman today!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!! All my nervousness from the night before was gone. I was ready to get this show on the road. Court was up too, so we chatted in the kitchen while we ate breakfast. I had 2 Pop Tarts, part of a bagel, OJ, and some Gatorade. I was still mildly worried that I might throw up before the race, so I didn’t want to stuff myself too much. Soon it was time to go, so we started walking down to the race site. The street was packed with other racers, so cool! It was only a mile away, but it seemed farther than that. I wanted to be there NOW.

We went into the TA and I loaded up my bike with food and drink, then it was time to go drop off our special needs bags. It was an absolute zoo with 2000 athletes and probably twice that many spectators all milling around the same area. We propped ourselves up against the railing of the TA and tried to wriggle into our wetsuits. Not an easy task, when you have about a 2 square foot area to work in, and there are a million people walking by bumping into you. Anyone who’s ever had the pleasure of trying to get on a wetsuit knows how much fun this is. Then it was time to make it down to the beach. It was about 6:30 now, and already light out. Definitely a change from Kansas! Court and I went down to the water to get our hair wet so we could get our caps and goggles on.

Before I knew it, Mike Reilly was saying that it was time for all the athletes to get into the starting corral. Ack! I gave Dan a quick kiss and then Court and I made our way over to the mass of neoprene-clad athletes all funneling into the fenced off start area. They had the music going, all the fans were cheering and yelling, it was a great atmosphere. At 6:50 the pros started, then some girl sang the national anthem. I was still standing with Courtney at this point, but I knew I needed to move to the back of the pack since I’m a slow swimmer, so I gave her a hug and moved on back. I positioned myself at the very back left corner of people, figuring that I should be able to get a pretty good spot in the water without too many people swimming over me that way. The last song I remember them playing was “Ironman” by Black Sabbath. They had a big clock set up at the back of the start area. I looked back at it, and it said 6:59 and some odd seconds. Less than a minute! Mike Reilly said “all you first timers, you WILL become an Ironman today!”, and then BOOM!! We were off!

The crowd went crazy, and we all started moving towards the water. When you’re standing there, you cant really comprehend how many other people there are. All I knew is that I was at the back, and there were a lot of people in front of me. There was no running into the water, I calmly walked in with the rest of the mass until I was about thigh deep, and then started swimming. The last thing I heard Mike say was “come on guys, they can still hear you, let ‘em know you love ‘em!”. Another huge roar from the crowd.

Question: when is swimming a contact sport? Answer: when it’s Ironman. I knew it was going to be crazy, but good lord! I was getting hit, kicked, grabbed, pushed, more than I had ever thought possible. I’ve heard the swim portion compared to a human washing machine, and that’s exactly what it felt like. There were arms and legs and bodies everywhere, but I managed to stay calm. It’s just swimming. Just find the next buoy and swim to it. Easy breezy. Except, there were so many people in front of me it was almost impossible to see the first buoy. So I kept sighting on every stroke until I found it, then just made my way in a straight line to it. I reached the first buoy pretty quickly, and then was able to see the orange turn buoy way out at the end. So I started making my way in a straight line to that one. Sounds simple enough. Except that some idiot was swimming in a zig-zag pattern RIGHT in front of me. Back and forth, back and forth. I couldn’t get away from him! I’d swim over to the left, and there he was again. I’d swim over to the right, and he was still there. He couldn’t swim in a damn straight line to save his life. I wanted to stop and yell, “there’s the buoy! Swim to it!!” I knew I was swimming straight, and I didn’t want to get too off course, so it took a while for me to finally get away from him. Aside from that guy, I really didn’t have many people get in my way. There were definitely a lot of people and I was constantly bumping into someone, but I was able to stay on my rhythm for the most part. I made it to the first turn buoy and turned left….directly into the rising sun. Aaah, my eyes! I cant see! It was nearly impossible to see the next orange turn buoy between the glare of the sun and all of the people, but I was finally able to catch sight of it’s pyramid shape and I made my way over to it.

Once I rounded that buoy, I could see the shore, and what looked like a river of people heading to it. So I just joined the flow and kept swimming. Just keep swimming. That’s all I had to do. Just keep going in a straight line. By the time I was to this point, the pack had thinned out considerably so I didn’t have too much trouble with running into people. The exit arch on the beach was black, and it seemed like all of the spectators stretched out along the beach were wearing black, so it was a little hard to tell exactly where I needed to be going, but I knew I was headed in the general right direction. Pretty soon, I could see the bottom again, and I could start to hear Mike Reilly talking, so I knew I was getting close. I kept swimming until my hand hit the bottom, then I stood up and walked to shore. I looked at my watch, :46 minutes. Not as fast as Halfmax, but not too shabby either. At this point, I knew I would make the swim cutoff, which made me VERY happy. As I was walking up on the beach to go start my second loop, some pro came blowing by me and shoved me to the side. He was done with his second loop. Sorry to get in your way, buddy. You go right ahead, I’m going to take my sweet time. I grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer and rinsed all the salt out of my mouth. As I was getting ready to wade back into the water, I heard Dan yell my name and I looked up and managed to spot him. Time for loop #2!

The second loop was more like what I’m used to at local races in terms of number of people. We were spread out, and I had plenty of room to work with. Just keep swimming. Just keep moving forward. You’ve got plenty of time. I made it out to the turn buoy, turned left, then turned left again to head back to shore. By this time, my stomach was starting to feel kind of tight. I didn’t think I had swallowed much salt water, so I figured it must have been from gulping in air for so long. The further I went, the more uncomfortable my stomach got. I was hoping that once I stood up, it would feel better, so I just wanted to make it back to that beach as fast as possible and get out of the water. Again, I kept swimming until my hand touched the bottom then I stood up and waded out of the water. I looked at my watch and it said 1:37:something. Yeah!! Time to spare.

I crossed under the exit arch and started walking up to the transition area. They had volunteers lining the walk to help you get off your wetsuit, and two of them waved me over and told me to take a seat. I just plopped down and they pulled it right off. Much easier than doing it myself! I had remembered that I forgot to tie my swim suit bottoms, so I held on to them so they wouldn’t come flying off with my wetsuit. Didn’t want to flash the world! My legs were still really rubbery at this point, so I just walked towards the TA. Before you got off the beach, they had a shower for you to go under to rinse off the salt water. I stood under it for a few seconds trying to get my bearings, then kept moving. Right before I got into the TA, I saw Dan there cheering and taking a picture.

Swim Time: 1:39:06

Once I got into the TA, all of our swim to bike bags were lined up there and there were volunteers to grab your bag for you. I told them my number, and a lady grabbed it for me. I was still feeling kind of wobbly, so it was almost hard to hold onto my bag. There were some more volunteers waving me into the women’s change tent, so I went in and sat down on an empty chair. There were quite a few other athletes in there at the time, but a volunteer came over and asked what she could do to help me, and started pulling things out of my bag. “Ok, here’s your helmet, you need that. Do you need your socks? You don’t need your armwarmers. Are you going to wear this jersey? Let me get your sunglasses out for you.” She was very helpful, it was so nice to have someone there since my brain was so water logged. She helped me get dried off and to pull on my bike shorts, then she went and got some sunscreen and started slathering it on me while I finished getting ready. I had put a Gu in my bag to eat before I got on the bike, but my stomach was still feeling really tight and uncomfortable, so I didn’t eat it. I strapped on my helmet, pulled on my gloves, and headed out.

After I got out of the tent, they had more volunteers shouting out our numbers so that other volunteers could grab your bike for you. My bike was in the first row, so I just started walking and there was someone there waiting for me with my bike. “Have a great ride!” she said. I’ll try, I’ll try. I had really been hoping that walking would help me to burp up some of the gas in my stomach, but it seemed to just be getting worse. Looking at the pictures Dan got, I can see that my stomach even LOOKED bloated. Not comfortable at all. It seemed that every 20 feet or so there were more volunteers waving me on telling me where to go. It’s a good thing, because the TA was huge! It seems like there is no way a person could get confused, but when your brain is water logged and you’ve got a 112 mile ride ahead of you, it could happen. I walked over the timing mat to the mount line, climbed on my bike, and was off.

T1 Time: 9:11

I kept praying that my stomach would start feeling better once I started riding, but as soon as I took off, it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen. Every pedal stroke I took, my stomach just seemed to get tighter and more uncomfortable. It wasn’t long before it went from being just uncomfortable to being downright painful. I started off in my aero bars going along at a nice, comfortable pace, but after only a couple of miles I was forced to sit up. My stomach just wouldn’t let me lay down like that. And I kept getting slower and slower. I was looking at my bike computer in dismay, hoping that maybe it was wrong and I really wasn’t going just 14 mph. But I just couldn’t go any faster. As I made the turn to head north, there were a couple of spectators standing on the corner and one of them yelled “start pedaling! Move your feet!” I wanted to throw my bike at him. I was starting to get really worried, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to make the bike cut off if I didn’t find a way to pick up the pace. I just kept pedaling as best as I could, and knew that the first aid station was at mile 12. If I could make it to that, I would be fine. Just keep pedaling. Keep moving. Don’t look at your computer. Don’t worry that people are passing you. Just keep moving. I started willing myself to throw up, thinking it would help. But I couldn’t. Dang! I couldn’t even make myself throw up!

There was a girl in front of me, so I made it my goal to just keep up with her. She wasn’t moving all that fast, so I figured that if I just stayed with her till the aid station, I would be ok. Oh. My. God. Puh-leazzzzeeeee!!!! Make it stop! My stomach was so tight and so painful, I was about to get off my bike on the side of the road and cry. It hurt so bad, but I knew I couldn’t stop. I knew that if I just kept going, it would get better. Just keep moving. Keep making forward progress. I tried to drink some Gatorade, but that made it worse. Crap. I couldn’t drink, and I sure as hell couldn’t eat. What if this kept up the entire 112 miles??? I couldn’t go that far with no fuel!!! Don’t think about it. Just get to the aid station. I tried to remain calm, but when you’re crawling along at about 12 mph, it’s hard to do.

I knew that the bridge was at mile 12, and that the aid station was likely just past it, so seeing that bridge gave me hope. Just get over it. Get over the bridge. This is your only hill. As I suspected, the aid station was just on the other side. I coasted to a stop and racked my bike next to the port-a-john. A couple minutes in there and I was feeling 90% better. I was thankful that I had thought to pack a couple of Pepto tablets in my bento box, so I ate those and drank some water. MUCH better. One of the volunteers asked if I was ok. “Yep, just gassy after that swim”. My stomach was still a little tight, but I felt amazing compared to how I had been a couple minutes ago, so I was ready to get back on my bike and make up some time.

NOW I was having fun. I laid the hammer down and started passing people left and right. I was clipping along at over 18 mph and feeling great. It only took me a few miles to catch up to the people who had passed me before the aid station. My stomach was feeling good now and I was back on my nutrition plan. Gu and salt tabs every 10 miles, and drink lots of Gatorade in between. I had Gatorade in my aero bottle, a bottle of water on my frame, and two bottles of Gatorade in my seat holder. My plan was to just drink out of my aero bottle, and refill at every aid station since they were only about 10-12 miles apart. The plan was working perfectly, and I came up to the second aid station, grabbed a bottle of Gatorade as I rode by, and emptied it into my aero bottle. All of the volunteers were so into it, yelling and cheering for us all as we went by. I had my “Hurley” bib number on my back, and one of the volunteers yelled “Yeah! That’s what I’m talkin’ about, Hurley!” That made me smile, and I pushed ahead. It was already time to turn east! Around this time, I passed a guy and as I went by he said “hey, aren’t you the girl in the cowbell shirt??”. I slowed up to talk to him, turns out he was the guy I had sat across from at dinner on Thursday. Don’t know how he recognized me on the bike!

Once I made the turn, I clicked it up another notch. I was passing people all over the place, it was fun! I was in a great mood, my bike was working, my stomach was working, the weather was perfect, and I WAS DOING AN IRONMAN!!! I had a smile on my face for this whole stretch. Eat, drink, pedal, drink, encourage other riders, drink, eat, pedal. Well, maybe there was some more pedaling in there. We crossed Hwy 77, and this is where the “rollers” were. They weren’t even rolling enough to be able to coast down though, but it was a great opportunity to put it in a high gear and pick up some speed. I felt like I was flying! I probably averaged close to 20 mph on this portion. As we were going up one little incline, a guy I was passing said to me “where did these hills come from??” Are you kidding me!? Where do you live buddy!? These aren’t hills. See ya.

Just before we turned back south, around mile 50 or so, they had the special needs bags. I stopped here to pull out all the goodies I had packed. Two words: Jolly Ranchers. The best thing ever. The cherry and apple ones are sour, so they make my mouth water, and it’s a nice little treat to have a piece of hard candy to give you a steady stream of sugar. I also grabbed my bag of Cheez-its, even though I didn’t really feel like eating them at this point. So I just stuffed them in my bento box, and then headed off again.

The ride south was along a 4-lane highway, where they had one lane completely blocked off for us. The traffic didn’t bother me, but we were going straight into a headwind now. And I was starting to get tired. And hot. And my neck and shoulders hurt from being in my aero bars. And my feet hurt from pedaling. And I was being a baby. I sat up and just kept pedaling. I was still moving at a decent speed, and I was still passing people. But this wind could go ahead and stop any time. Seriously. It wasn’t THAT bad, but I could do without it. I saw a gal on the side of the road with her wheel off, and asked if she needed a tube or a Co2. She said that she needed a tire, but the tech guys were bringing her one. I knew that there was a little hill right before we turned back west, so I kept looking for that. Once I saw it, I got back in my aero bars and got my butt there as fast as possible. I knew once I turned west, we’d be back in some tree cover and hopefully out of the wind.

The wind did die down once I turned, but the road was ROUGH. There were huge cracks about every 10 feet, so it was a constant “Buh-bump! Buh-bump! Buh-bump!” UUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!! I was sure I was going to get a flat. Great. Just great. That’s just what I need. Also, somewhere in here the magnet for my bike computer got worked loose, and my monitor stopped reading. Crap! I don’t know how fast I’m going, and I don’t know how far I’ve gone. Shit. Oh well, just keep going. Keep moving forward. There were a couple of volunteers standing along the road shouting “there’s an aid station just ahead!” Good! I needed to pee, and I was low on Gatorade. So I picked up the pace a bit, thinking that the aid station would be just around the next curve. But it never came. Turns out, it was about 3 miles up. That’s not “just ahead”.

Before I got to it though, I saw another guy on the side of the road with his wheel off, so I slowed and asked if he needed a tube or a Co2. He said that a Co2 would be great. I had 3 in my bag and figured I could spare one, so I turned around and headed back to him. I went to pull off on the side of the road, but the shoulder was all sand so my back end skidded out from under me and I fell over. Dammit! I managed to get my foot unclipped though, and caught myself before I went completely over. I gave the guy a cartridge, asked if he had an adaptor, and started off again. I came up to the aid station pretty quickly, stopped for a quick potty break and a Gatorade refill, and then kept going.

I was at about mile 55 by now, and I was starting to get pretty tired. My longest ride before the race had only been 90 miles. I had done quite a few in the 50-60 mile range, so I was getting towards the end of what I was comfortable with. Its ok, I kept telling myself, it’s flat, you’ve got plenty of time, you can get it done. I just had to keep moving forward. Soon I was turning east for the out-and-back portion. Since my bike computer wasn’t working, I wasn’t really sure where I was at, so I was happy to see the 60-mile marker. Yes! Well over half-way done.

The out-and-back was on a 2-lane road, so they had a cone set up in the middle that we had to pull a u-turn around. I suck at those tight turns. There was a timing mat right after the turn though, so I saw that and got excited knowing that everyone tracking my progress would soon be getting an update. I was thinking about that instead of making the turn, so I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing, and I didn’t swing wide enough. As soon as I started turning, I knew what was going to happen. Sonofabitch, I’m going to fall over. And I did. It seemed to happen in slow motion, I remember thinking “don’t stick your arm out, you’ll mess up your wrist” and “oh crap, my feet are still clipped in”. I fell to my left, but somehow my right knee connected with the pavement, still going in slow motion, then everything sped up again and my face smacked into the road. Hard. Dammit, dammit, dammit! My first thought was that my sunglasses were going to be broken. I hopped up as quick as I could, because I was afraid someone would come up behind me and I’d make them wreck too. There were two Sherriff officers standing there manning the turn around and they both rushed over to help me up and make sure I was ok. I just stood there for a minute assessing myself and saying “I’m ok, I’m ok, I’m ok”. My knee was all bloody, my break lever had gotten pushed in, and it felt like someone had punched me in the face. But my sunglasses were ok! Woo hoo! They held my bike while I got back on and then gave me a little push as I took off. I heard my chip beep as I crossed the timing mat, and I chuckled to myself thinking that nobody keeping track of my progress would guess that I had just made a fool of myself seconds before.

There was an aid station right there so I grabbed a Gatorade to refill my aero bottle since it had emptied all over the road when I fell. By now, my neck was killing me, making it almost impossible to stay aero. I was changing positions about every minute, trying to get comfortable. That was making it pretty impossible for me to go very fast. My computer was working intermittently now, so from what I could tell, I was averaging somewhere around 15 mph. Not as fast as I had been hoping for, but I was still moving, and I knew I would make the bike cutoff. So I was OK. The next 20 miles or so were more of the same, stiff neck, shifting around trying to get comfortable, and telling myself it didn’t matter how fast I was going. My feet were really hurting now, and my legs were getting really tired. I tried not to think about the upcoming marathon.

The aid station around mile 80 was manned by a bunch of pirates (literally, they were dressed as pirates), and I figured this would be a good place to get off and stretch a little bit. All the aid stations had bike racks, so I hopped off and went to rack my bike. Except, there was a bit of a drop off after the shoulder before you got to the bike rack, and I let go of my bike and it fell down the hill. Gah! I had just refilled my aero bottle and now it was spilling out AGAIN. Oh well. Rack bike, stretch, get more Gatorade, get back on bike, keep riding. I was officially in a bad mood now. I was tired, sore, and I wanted to be done. Just let me be done! Since my bike computer was crapping out on me, I had no idea what my speed was or how far I had gone, which was pissing me off. Grrrrr. Stupid bike, stupid bike computer. Why does this course have to be so friggin long? Oh yeah, because it’s Ironman. Well, I hate you, Ironman.

When I got to the aid station at mile 90, there were two things that made me smile. First off, someone had their Boston there! Yay! I hadn’t seen Walter and Penny in a week, and I missed them. So it cheered me up to see another Boston. And then someone had a series of signs set up that said, “You are strong. You are fit. You trained for this. You can do it.” Ok yeah, I can do it. I guess I did train for it, so I might as well finish the dang thing. Only 22 miles. That’s nothing. I ride that far on a weeknight ride. Lets go. For the next 10 miles or so, there were several other riders that I kept trading places with. I’d pass them, they’d pass me, back and forth, back and forth. Oh man, I just wanted to get off my bike. I made the turn south, and the bridge was right there. Only 12 miles to go!!

Soon after, I passed the 100-mile marker. That re-energized me, and I got down in my bars, despite how much my neck hurt, and just pushed it as hard as I could. I. Wanted. Off. My. Bike. Now. I was passing people again, and soon I was turning left onto Front Beach Road making my way back to the TA. This stretch was only about 6 miles, but it felt SO much longer. I finally made the turn to head back down to the TA and there were tons of people along the road cheering. I was so sore, my hands were numb, my feet were on fire, I had a headache, and I wanted a nap. I felt like crying, but I was afraid that would make me fall over when I tried to get off my bike. I coasted up to the dismount line, and there was a volunteer there waiting to take my bike. Take it away! Take it away and never let me see it again!

Bike Time: 7:24:48

There was no running through the TA for me, I calmly walked past where the bike-to-run bags were, someone handed me my bag, and I walked down to the change tent. There were only a couple of other athletes in there, so I plopped myself down on a chair and just sat there. Helmet still on, sunglasses still on, gloves still on, bike shoes still on. I just sat there, not really sure what to do next. A volunteer came over and started pulling things out of my bag. “How was your ride? Looks like you had a spill. Are you ok? What do you need? What can I do to help?” I don’t know lady, I don’t know. I asked if she could just pull the stuff out of my bag and get me some water. She pulled the disposable camera out of my bag that I planned to take on the run and asked if I wanted a picture of myself. I said no, but she took one anyway. I’m sure it will turn out just dandy. I slowly started taking off my bike gear and trying to think about what I needed to take on the run. I switched into my run shorts and started stuffing my pockets with Gu, shot blocks, sport beans, and salt tabs. I tried to rinse some of the dried blood off my knee, but it was too thick and crusty, so I just left it. Ok, time to go run a marathon.

T2 Time: 10:44

As I was coming out of the TA onto the run course, I saw Dan there and he asked me how I was. All I could do was shake my head. I think I shook it “yes”, but I don’t know for sure. There were tons of spectators and other athletes here, so that gave me enough of a boost to start running. Surprisingly, my legs felt relatively fresh! Don’t ask me how that happened, I thought they were about to fall off after I got off my bike. But now that I was running, I felt good again. It didn’t take me long to really get loosened up and into my groove, and I was really enjoying the atmosphere. The first couple of miles were basically one long party, with tons of spectators and lots of music. Since I had my name on my bib, everyone was yelling “Go Julie! Looking strong, Julie!” It was great!

The run course was an out-and-back that we had to do twice, so I just broke it down into my head to four 6.5 mile segments. That’s a piece of cake, I can run 6.5 miles any day. Don’t think beyond 6.5 miles. I felt so good at this point, for the first time all day I let myself think about the finish line. I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself, just stay on this stretch of the run, but I let the thought creep in that I was actually going to finish. But for the most part, I tried to just focus on the here and now. We ran past some condo resorts, then turned into a residential neighborhood. All the people were out in their yards cheering us along. Around mile 3 or so, I passed Courtney going the other way. She was towards the end of her first loop, and a good hour and a half or so ahead of me. We gave each other a mid-run hug and kept going. I was cheering on the other runners, thanking the volunteers, and just loving the experience. There were aid stations about every mile, and at each one I grabbed a wet sponge to stuff in my top. It wasn’t too hot, but I was definitely warm.

Before I knew it, I was getting close to the entrance for St. Andrews Park, where the turn around would be. All of the signs that people had made for their athletes were up along this stretch, so it was fun to read them all. There was also a guy who had parked his SUV here and was wearing some sort of spandex outfit and cape, doing all sorts of crazy stuff to entertain us as we ran. I made it into the park, and there was an aid station right there. I needed to pee again, and there was no line at this john, so I stopped in for a quick break before continuing on. There were quite a few volunteers and spectators throughout the park, really helping to keep my spirits up. My legs were still feeling good, so I had no worries. As I got close to the turn around, I passed a guy going the opposite direction with a KC Multisport jersey on. I realized it was the guy I had talked to in the merchandise store the other day, and I remembered him saying he wanted to finish in 11:30 or something like that. I looked at my watch, figured he was on his second loop, and knew he would be able to make it.

About a mile after I turned around, I came to the Ford Motivational Mile. You crossed another mat that read your number, and it displayed a message for you on this big screen. They’d had a little kiosk set up at the expo all week where people could leave a message for you, and Courtney had typed in one for me. It said “More cowbell!! Rrun!” The 2 R’s made me laugh, I wasn’t sure if it was a typo or if she had intended it, but either way it was funny. I was starting to get kind of sore, but nothing too bad. I was mainly just tired.
Back out of the park and past the crazy spandex guy. He was still jumping around and singing. Still funny. By the time I got back to the neighborhood area, I was really starting to hit a wall. I wanted to be off my feet and done. Around mile 9 I saw Court headed back out on her second loop, I was so jealous! I wanted to be done. By now, most people headed my direction were on their second loop and almost done. So all of the volunteers and spectators were cheering “you’re almost there! Just a few more miles! You did it!” Uggggghhhh! I’m on my first loop! Shut the hell up, you don’t know what you’re talking about! I made it back to the part where we ran by the condos, and there was a group of girls dressed up in Halloween costumes who were screaming their heads off for everyone and ringing cowbells. Nice effort, but it was giving me a headache.

I turned left down the main road, and could see the finish line ahead of me. There were tons of spectators, all yelling “You did it!!! You’re almost there!! It’s right ahead!!” It was all I could do to keep from crying, I still had over 13 miles to go. Taking you right next to the finish line for the turn around on the run portion of an Ironman is about the cruelest thing I can imagine. I wanted to just lay down and die right there in the middle of the road. I didn’t acknowledge anyone, I just looked straight ahead and tried to hold it together. I saw Dan and he asked how I was feeling, I just shook my head. This time, I know I shook it “no”. I knew if I opened my mouth to talk I’d start crying, and I just didn’t have the energy. I tried not to look at the finish line as I turned around. I got my special needs bag, and all I took out of it was more sport beans and my Jolly Ranchers. I had put in a long sleeve shirt, extra socks and extra shoes, but I didn’t want any of that. I just wanted to hurry up and get done. Oh man, here we go for loop 2. 13.1 miles has never sounded so long.

Back out I went. It was dark now, and there were few people running the direction I was going. Everyone else was heading into town for their finish. Back past the loud girls in Halloween costumes. One of them ran along side me saying “come on! You can do it! Only 13 miles! Your last long run was probably longer than that! We’ll see you on the way back!”. OMG, get out of my ear! I appreciated the effort, but again, the noise was giving me a headache. Back into the neighborhood. There were no street lights, and it was very dark. They had lights set up at corners where we had to turn and at the aid stations, but for the most part, it was pitch black. I managed to spot Courtney when she had about 3 miles left, and mustered up the energy to tell her good job and that she was almost an Ironman. For the most part I just tried not to think about how much farther I had to go. Now all the aid stations were serving chicken broth, so I started taking that. I had long ago decided I couldn’t stomach any more Gu, so I was glad that I had plenty of alternate fuel choices.

I made it to the park entrance. The aid station there had some big speakers set up, and the All-American Rejects song “Move Along” was playing when I got there. Very fitting, I thought. I kept those lyrics running through my head for the next few miles:

“When all you gotta keep is strong
Move along, move along like I know ya do.
And even when your hope is gone,
Move along, move along just to make it through”

Just. Keep. Moving. I can do this. I can complete a marathon. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again. Move. Move. Go. Go. I tried to find something positive to focus on. Well, my hips hadn’t tightened up. My IT bands normally give me trouble on long runs, making my hips extremely tight and painful. But not today. My legs were just sore in general. And my feet hurt. My poor feet, they just wanted the weight of my body off of them. But on the bright side, they hadn’t blistered very bad. I had blisters for sure, but nothing worse than I’ve had before, and not nearly as bad as at Lincoln. Ok. I can do this. Just keep moving. You can’t finish if you stop. You didn’t give yourself a bloody knee and slam your face into the pavement for nothing. You’ve already gone over 130 miles. This is cake. I started talking out loud to myself just to keep moving forward. I didn’t care what people thought. The park was pitch black and I couldn’t see anyone anyway, so it’s not like they could see me either.

I got to the aid station about a mile before the turn around and one of the volunteers asked if I wanted a glow necklace. Yes. Do you want me to put it on for you? Yes. I don’t think I could have put it over my head if I had tried. My arms were too week to raise up that high. Keep moving. Get to the turn around. Head back home. 6.5 miles to go. I looked at my watch, trying to do the math in my head. I couldn’t figure out how long it was going to take me. I knew I had 17 hours, and I was at 14-something. So I had time. That’s all I cared about. As I headed out of the park, I passed Frank Farrar going the other direction. Come on Jules, if HE can do it, YOU can do it.

Back out of the park. Crazy spandex guy was STILL there. Back into the neighborhood. Man, it was so dark in here. All of the spectators were gone, and you could tell that the volunteers were tired. Me too. I was straining my eyes looking for every mile marker. I could see a few people up ahead of me, and I knew there were some behind me. Mile 23. I wanted to die. My feet hurt so bad, my entire body ached, I was dead tired. I just wanted to be done. I started crying, but I didn’t have the energy or enough fluid in my body to make any tears, so it came out as whimpering. I was actually whimpering. I spent the next mile and a half in that pathetic state. When was it going to end!? Seriously, I didn’t remember the trek through the neighborhood being this long. But finally, I made the turn to head back past the condos. Yes! Almost done!

I was instantly in a better mood, but I was still moving pretty slow. Just shuffling along. The girls in the Halloween costumes were still there, watching for people, and they came running out to cheer me along. This time it didn’t give me a headache. I turned left and I was back on the main road. It was a straight shot to the finish. There were spectators again. There were people everywhere. A lot of them were athletes that had already finished and were going home. But I didn’t care. I saw Dan and asked “why aren’t you at the finish line?!”, and he ran ahead so he would be there when I crossed it. Now when people were yelling at me “You did it! You’re almost there! You’re going to be an Ironman!” I smiled. I didn’t want to punch them this time. I could see the lights of the finish line, and hear Mike Reilly announcing people.

I came around a slight curve, and there was the finish chute! It was lined with people, and the bleachers were packed. I passed a lady in the chute who was walking, and I picked it up and went as fast as I could. I was going to finish!! I was going to finish a freakin’ Ironman!! People were screaming and yelling…..for ME! I remember on the Kona broadcast several years ago, Bob Costas was commentating and as they showed people crossing the finish line he said “all the miles you trained when no one was there to see, now it feels like the whole world is watching.” And it did. Everyone was watching ME, cheering for ME. I did it, I couldn’t even believe it. Everything was so loud, I didn’t even hear Mike say “Julie Hurley, you are an Ironman!!!”, but I know he did. I raised my arms and jumped through the finish tape. I was done! I did it! I WAS AN IRONMAN!

Immediately a volunteer put her arm around me and asked if I was ok. I just shook my head and said yes. Yes, I’m ok. She put a foil blanket around my shoulders. Do you need anything? No, I’m fine. Here’s your medal. What size shirt do you want? Small. We ran out of smalls. Ok, medium. Here’s your shirt. Here’s your hat. Are you sure you’re ok? Yes, I’m ok. Then Dan was there to hug me, and all I could say was “I need to sit down”. I couldn’t see very well, my vision had gone all blurry. I couldn’t hear very well, and I felt like I couldn’t speak. He guided me to a chair and I sat down. I cant even explain how good it felt to get off my feet. After all those miles. I just sat there for a few minutes and breathed. I know I talked to him, but I don’t remember about what. I got up to walk out of the finish area, and Courtney and Eric were there waiting. Eric said “Oh man, I saw you on the run and knew you must have ate shit on your bike!”. Oh yeah, I landed on my face. I had forgotten about that. I reached up and felt that my cheek was all swollen where I had hit the pavement, and they told me I had a black eye. Great!

They had the Ironman backdrop set up there to take your post-finish picture, so I grabbed Dan for that. The photographer said, “wow, looks like you have some battle wounds! You did it!”. Yes, yes I did. I did it. I was so happy, every bit of pain was gone. I was a little stiff, and my feet still weren’t happy, but I was too happy to notice. I headed over to the massage tent and got right in for my massage. It felt great. After that, I was starving, so we went over to the food tent but they had already run out of pizza. Dammit! Oh well, I can eat later. It was almost midnight by then, so we went to the finish line to watch the last few people come in. And then it was over. As quickly as it had begun, it was over. It had been the longest day of my life, but at that moment, I felt like it had flown by.

Total Time: 16:00:43

Dan dropped us off at the hotel, and then went out in search of food. I was beat, but too hyped up to sleep yet. I called my mom, and she said that they had stayed up to watch me finish. I listened to all my voice mails, looked through the texts I’d gotten during the day, ate some McD’s, and then headed to bed. Once I laid down, I realized how sore my legs were. It was downright painful to be laying down. I had Dan bring me some Aleve, I took a couple and laid there trying to get comfortable. It was after 1:00 by the time I was able to fall asleep, and I was up at 5:30 the next morning once the Aleve wore off. I had expected that I’d have a hard time sleeping, so I wasn’t too surprised. I got up and shuffled around the apartment waiting for everyone else to get up. Court went and had breakfast with her parents, and Dan and I headed down to the expo so I could buy some finishers merchandise. I was a little stiff, but had loosened up pretty well. No major pain to speak of.

There were times during the race where I was cursing myself for ever thinking this was a good idea. There were times where I swore up and down that I was never going to run another mile again. But that finish line was worth it. It was worth every bit of pain, and every sacrifice made over the last year. I’ll do another one, but it will be a few years for sure. I need a break. Now it’s back to doing normal stuff….like marathons.

IMFL Part 1

2007-11-07T15:29:00.000-06:00

I remember watching the Kona broadcast in years past thinking “Those people are special. Those people are amazing athletes. Those people are crazy. I’m not like that. I couldn’t do that if I wanted to. No way, no how.” There was something always fascinating about watching people complete what has been dubbed the most grueling single-day endurance event know to man. Even if I thought that it was completely out of reach for myself, I still liked watching other people do it.

People always ask me why I decided to do an Ironman. I don’t really have a good answer, but if you have ever watched the finish of one, you’ll know. I decided I wanted that finish line for myself, so I went after it.

The entire year before the race, I thought I would be a bundle of nerves on race week. But I wasn’t. I was excited and anxious, but not nervous. We left for Panama City Beach on Wednesday before the race, and both Courtney and I were full of nothing but excited energy. Waiting at the airport, we were loud and giggly, and Dan was pretty much embarrassed to be seen with us. But I didn’t care, because we were going to do a freakin Ironman! We had to connect through Memphis, and even the screaming kid in the seat behind me didn’t dampen my spirit. I was way too excited to let anything get me down.
Thankfully, when we had registered the previous November, we had gone ahead and booked our condo at that time. And boy, am I glad we did. It was right on the beach, less than a mile from the race site. Meaning that we were within walking distance so we didn’t have to mess with driving and parking every time we needed to go down there. Very convenient, and I highly recommend staying as close to the race start as possible for anyone doing a future Ironman.

Wednesday we spent the day getting going down to the expo and getting checked in. It was so exciting to get my actual race stuff! We had to weigh in, I presume so that in the event that we ended up in the medical tent, they’d be able to tell how dehydrated we were. We got all of our stuff, and then headed over to the event store to start stocking up on M-dot merchandise. I knew I wanted to wait till Sunday and get plenty of “finisher” stuff, but I did want to get a few things now. My favorite purchase was a “More Cowbell” shirt that turned out to be a huge hit when I wore it the next day. There was such a great energy at the expo being around all of the other athletes and their families, so we just hung out for a while soaking it all in.

After that we went down the road and ate lunch at Spinnakers, a bar that was right on the beach. Here it was, Halloween, and we were sitting out on the patio at the beach, wearing shorts. How perfect! Once we got some food in our bellies, it was time to make a Super Wal-Mart run to stock up on food for the rest of the week. Since we had a full kitchen in our condo, we wanted to be able to eat most of our meals there instead of having to eat out. Most of the people we saw at the store were other racers doing the same thing.

We went back to the condo to get all settled in and unpacked, then had Dan drop us off at Eric’s parents condo so that we could pick up our bikes. Their condo was about five miles down the road from ours, so we rode back to our place just to make sure that everything was in proper working order. We just hung out and relaxed for a bit, then Courtney and Eric decided to take a walk on the beach while I got dinner ready for all of us. They came back an hour or so later, and Court had a shiny new rock on her left hand. It was their 7 year dating anniversary, and he had decided to propose! She had been hoping he would, so I was very happy for them. We settled down to a gourmet meal of Stouffers lasagna then watched a marathon of the Halloween movies before turning in relatively early.

I don’t know what the deal was, but I just could not sleep past about 5:30 the entire time we were down there. Thursday morning I woke up early, had some breakfast and sat out on our balcony for a while and waited for everyone else to wake up. Court was up early too, I guess we both were too hyped up to sleep! Sitting on the balcony, we could see quite a few people in their wetsuits out swimming the ocean right in front of our condo. We took our time just hanging out, and then she and I walked down the beach to go to the Gatorade practice swim. At the race site, they had buoys set up for the length of the swim course so that you could get in the water and do some swimming on the actual course. There were a ton of other people there doing the same thing, it was kind of a weird feeling to finally be here at the race, surrounded by other racers!

The water was absolutely perfect, not a single wave. I had swam in much choppier conditions in lakes before, so I knew I had nothing to worry about. Before we got down there, the swim portion had been my biggest concern. But once we got in the water, every worry just disappeared. This was going to be fun! We swam out to the first buoy, about 500 yards or so, and just floated in the water for a few minutes talking about how exciting this was. Everyone else there was as excited and happy as we were, it was just a great atmosphere. It was so much fun to be swimming in the ocean, I decided I wanted to keep going, so we headed out to the second buoy. Court was ahead of me, obviously, and by the time I got out there, she was trying to help out some guy who was having a panic attack. I felt bad for him, I would have hated to be feeling that way just 2 days before the race. But I was feeling really confident about my swim now. No worries. I floated there for a bit and talked to a couple of other guys while I waited on Courtney. One of them was probably about 60 years old and had done IMFL each of the past 9 years. He assured me that it was a great race and that I would do just fine, and told me to remember to have fun. That’s one of the best pieces of advice I got, and one that I heard numerous times throughout the week. Have fun. This wasn’t something I HAD to do, this was something I WANTED to do. It’s supposed to be fun!

Courtney was still tied up trying to make sure the one guy didn’t drown, so I headed back to shore. The saltwater was making my lips feel kind of tingly, but I was enjoying being out there. The water was crystal clear, I could still see the bottom even out at the second buoy, which was probably close to 800 yards out. No waves, crystal clear water, what more could I ask for!? I got back to the shore and stripped out of my wetsuit, and sat on my towel people watching while I waited for Courtney to get back in from swimming/lifesaving. On our way back to the condo, we saw what we THOUGHT was a big sting ray in the water, so we waded in and walked over to it…..only to discover that it was a giant jelly fish. Ack! It was pretty neat looking, but we didn’t want to take any chances on getting stung.

After our practice swim, I got showered up and Dan and I headed out to drive the bike course. I knew that it was all flat and pretty much all rural, but I wanted to try to pick out any landmarks that might be along the course. There pretty much were none. The first few miles were on the main road in PCB that ran along the beach where all of the condos were, then you turned north to make a big rectangle. The only “hill” of the whole course was a bridge that went over one of the inland waterways, and it wasn’t really much of a hill. Driving over it, I knew that I wouldn’t even need to come out of my saddle to climb it unless I wanted to stretch my legs. There was one portion of the course that had some VERY gentle rollers, but again, nothing to even give a second thought to. Around here it’s impossible to find a long ride that’s this flat, so I was really looking forward to seeing how fast I could go!

We got back to the condo, and it was time to head over to the race site for the welcome dinner. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I wanted to take part in all the activities of the week. The dinner started at 5:30, and we had kind of figured that people would be getting up and leaving as they finished, but that wasn’t the case. It was held in the conference center of the host resort, and they had people packed in there like sardines. Literally. It was after 6 by the time we got there, and it was a struggle to find a seat. I knew there was no way all 4 of us would be able to sit together, so Dan and I just grabbed the first two seats we saw and Court and Eric headed off to find two for themselves. I was wearing my “more cowbell” shirt, and the guy we ended up sitting across from recognized me from Subway earlier in the day. I also had a drunk lady tell me how great the shirt was while we were walking over to dinner. I have to admit, it IS a pretty good shirt.

The food was crappy, and the presentation was boring. But being in the same room as all the other athletes and their respective fan clubs was awesome. So for those of you with an upcoming IM, definitely go to the welcome dinner. My favorite part was when they showed the Ironman video that I’ve been watching almost daily for the last year. Gives me goose bumps every time! They also got the oldest and youngest competitors up on stage, and the oldest male competitor was well-known 78 year old Frank Farrar. I remember watching him on the IM Wisconsin broadcast last year, and being amazed that he was able to finish it. His left leg is completely mangled from an old WWII injury, and he’s done I think 30-something Ironman races. If a 78 year old man with a mangled leg can do it, so can I! After all of that, we had the “mandatory” athletes meeting. This my friends, was a waste of time. They didn’t tell us anything that wasn’t in the athletes guide, and it’s not as if they took roll call. So, not really mandatory. I wish we had skipped out and just gone back to the condo.

Friday morning I woke up early AGAIN. At home it was a struggle to pull my butt out of bed, but now it was a struggle to stay asleep. I was waking up several times during the night, and then unable to sleep past 5:30. I guess I just had too much adrenaline. So I went ahead and got up, ate breakfast, and went down and sat on the beach for a while. It was nice to have a little bit of time alone to just think about the next day’s race and to reassure myself that I was indeed ready. We had to drop off our bikes and gear bags by 3:00 that afternoon, so Court and I set about the daunting task of making sure that we had everything ready to go. I had brought 2 suitcases, plus my normal transition bag, and they were all stuffed full. Now I had to organize all that crap into piles of what I would need and when. Fun stuff.

But before I could make much progress on that task, Courtney and I headed down to the race site for the free athletes pancake breakfast and to get massages. My hips typically are what really bother me, so I wanted to get them nice and loosened up. So we went to the massage tent, got our appointments booked, and then headed over for some pancakes. The breakfast was sponsored by one of the local churches, so we had about 3 different people telling us “Jesus loves you!” as we went through the line.

The pancakes were good, but the massage was even better. I sure do love getting a massage. Even if it’s only 30 minutes, it’s still money well spent. After I got done, my hips and legs were feeling great, ready to take on 140.6 miles the next day. Courtney had her appointment after mine, so while she was getting worked on I went over to the Janus Inspiration Station to make a sign for her that would be placed out on the course. It’s pretty neat, they have a tent set up where you can make signs for your athlete and they will put them out on the run course. You could also make a sign to hold while you watched for your athlete to come by. I had planned on going over to the merchandise tent to look around some more, but it took me longer than expected to make my sign. It was a true work of art.

After Court got done with her massage, we headed into the store to get some chain lube, and I found an “Iron Mate” t-shirt that I picked up for Dan to wear the next day. We rode back to the condo to finish packing our bags. I swear, packing those bags was probably the most nerve-wracking part of the whole week. I had to pack a swim to bike bag, a bike special needs bag, a bike to run bag, and a run special needs bag. Not to mention my saddle bag and bento box for the bike. How many GU’s will I need on the bike? How many Co2 cartridges should I put in my saddle bag? Should I try to fit my spare tire on my bike, or put it in special needs? How much food will fit in my run shorts, and how much will go in my special needs bag? Aaaaahhhh!!! Stress!!!! If I didn’t pack the right things in the right bag, it could make for a very bad race. But, there’s only so much obsessing you can do, so I made my decisions and tied up my bags. Done. Now lets just hope I didn’t put my helmet in my bike to run bag, or something stupid like that.

The boys had decided they wanted to go rent scooters for the afternoon, so we rode our bikes down to the race site and had them follow us in the car with our bags and then wait while we dropped everything off. It was pretty scary dropping off my bike knowing that I wouldn’t see it again until the next day. I’m not used to going home before a race without my bike! The TA was a massive sea of bikes, and Court and I just walked around for a while drooling over them all. Every bike we saw was cooler than the last. Lots of Cervelos, and Court was even racked next to one just like mine. Ok, drop off our bags, time to go. Yikes! This was it, the last thing we had to do before the race. I was a little jittery about doing it, but still not nervous at all. Very surprising.

The boys picked us up and we headed over to the scooter rental place to drop them off, then drove back to the condo. Since our bikes and all of our gear were gone, we didn’t really have anything to do but sit around and obsess about the race. We were both really excited and just ready to get the show on the road. Around 4, we decided that we were both hungry and didn’t want to wait any longer for the guys, so we got dinner going. Our kitchen was pretty limited in the way of pots and pans, but we made do with what we had. The last supper? Baked chicken, rice, stuffing, and veggies. Yum! Dan showed up just as we sat down to eat, the other two had decided to go out to dinner with Eric’s parents.

After dinner is when I started getting a little nervous. I knew that Eric’s and Courtney’s parents would be stopping by that evening, and I was just not in a social mood. So I went into the bedroom and laid down to watch Deal or no Deal. Dan came in soon after and was trying to be all sweet and encouraging, but I was a little crabby and was having none of it. I dozed off somewhere around 8:00 or so, then woke up at about 9 to take out my contacts and go to bed for real. I was nervous, but not nearly as nervous as I had been before Half Max. I was just ready to go!

Race Week!

2007-10-29T10:07:00.000-05:00

T-minus five days and counting. Ack! I can’t believe it’s already here. Saturday I did my last “long” run of 8 miles. Kind of funny that an 8 mile run doesn’t seem very long anymore. After that, Courtney and I did a short little 30 minute ride just to make sure the bikes were in proper working condition and then we drove them down to Clinton to drop them off with Eric’s parents. They are driving to Florida and were nice enough to offer to take our bikes with them so that we didn’t have to worry about shipping them. I’ve heard so many horror stories about bikes getting lost and damaged, it was nice to have one less thing to worry about. Not to mention the fact that it isn’t exactly cheap to ship a bike. Although, if I could have bought my bike it’s own seat on the plane and just wheeled it on and sat it next to me, I would have done it in a heart beat. I’m a little nervous about them riding on a hitch on the back of the Jeep, but they’ll be fine. Court checked in with them this morning, and they are just a few hours from Panama City Beach. I will breathe much easier when I know the bikes are safe and sound in Florida! I must admit, it was a little weird to go home without my bike. I kept having momentary panic attacks thinking I had accidentally left it somewhere.

While I was off saying buh-bye to my bike, Dan took Walter and Penny up to Maryville to drop them off with my parents. Sad! I have to be without my two little bostons for the next 2 weeks, because we wont be going up to Omaha to pick them up until the weekend of the 10th. The house is much quieter (and calmer!) without them, but I do miss them already. Max was a little confused at first, but I think now he’s liking the fact that he’s the only dog around. He’s going to stay with Bryce while we’re gone, so he’ll have Emma to keep him company during the day.

Sunday I planned on doing all of my packing since I have a night meeting for work tonight, but first I went out to Wyandotte County Park to watch Monica and Melissa do the Boulevard Cup cyclo-cross race. It was fun to watch, but I think I will stick to riding on the road, thank you very much. Then the IMUSA broadcast was on, so naturally I HAD to watch that. I sat on the couch shaking through the entire thing, partly from nerves and partly from excitement. It has been such a build up to this race, I cant wait to just GO! I’m a little bit nervous about the swim, so once I get out of the water I know I’ll be fine. And I’m actually looking forward to the run.

I made a packing list, so that made my job a lot easier. I started with my race essentials, and made sure those would all fit in my carry-ons. I’ve informed Dan that he doesn’t get a carry on, because I need two. No way am I entrusting my running shoes or something else important to the airline. That stuff is not leaving my sight. My luck, they would lose my bag and it would show up at the condo on Sunday. I’d prefer it if they would just not lose my bag, but if it happens, it’s OK because everything I NEED will be with me.

So, now for the good stuff. You can track me on Saturday on ironmanlive.com. Just search for my name or my race number, and you’ll get updates whenever I pass certain points on the course. Then, based on how my run times are looking, you can estimate about when I’ll finish and actually watch me cross the finish line! I’m shooting for around 15 hours, so that would be about 10pm CST. I may do better, I may take a little longer, but I figure that’s a pretty decent guess. Dan will have his cell phone and my cell phone with him during the race, so if you have either of those numbers feel free to call for an update. He’ll have some time to kill, and I’m sure would appreciate the distraction. I’m going to try to post a couple of blog updates while we’re in Florida, and I plan to have my race report up by the end of next week. So be sure to check back.

Thanks again for all of your support and well-wishes, I’m ready to go!

My name is Julie, and I'm a painaholic!

2007-10-25T14:21:00.000-05:00

The other day, I had a business lunch and ran into some of my former co-workers. I didn’t have much of a chance to stay around and chat with people, so later in the afternoon one of them sent me an email asking how things have been going, yada, yada, yada. I responded back that I’m doing an Ironman next weekend, and his response made me laugh:

“Ironman Florida?! Damn, are you into pain? Like getting kicked in the head while your swimming in shark infested waters? On TV?”

So I got to thinking. Yes, the race is going to hurt, and it’s going to hurt bad. Am I scared about the pain? Nope! On the contrary, I’m rather looking forward to it. Maybe it’s my sadistic side, but sometimes pain is good. Swim 2.4 miles, ride 112, then run a marathon. Bring it on, baby! I can take it! I’m going to get to my pain threshold, pass it, and keep going. When I think my toes are about to fall off, I’ll keep going. When my hips hurt so bad that I’m about 99.99% certain I’ll be crippled after the race, I will keep going. When I start crying because I want to lay down so badly, I’ll keep going. I can handle some pain. I’ve got the bloody shoe to prove it!

Speaking of my bloody shoe, I’ve decided that it’s going to be my good luck charm. The weekend after I bloodied it up, I set my new half marathon PR. That’s got to count for something, right?!

So, bloody shoe, you and I are going to get this puppy done. You might get a little more bloody, you might get some pee on you, and you might get some puke on you. But by God, we will get to that finish line.

2158

2007-10-22T15:04:00.000-05:00

Numbers are finally up, I will be athlete number 2158 on race day. Woo hoo!!

KC Half Marathon

2007-10-22T11:21:00.000-05:00

I did the KC Half Marathon on Saturday and set a new PR for myself…..by 21 minutes! My finish time was 2:35, and my time from Lincoln last year was 2:56. So I am definitely improving! A 5:00 marathon feels a lot more realistic now. Well, maybe not for Florida, but a stand-alone marathon later on. I’d like to find a good spring marathon to do next year.

Anyway, Saturday was perfect as far as weather goes. Erin and I got down to Crown Center early, and sat around for a while before heading over to the start line. KC is a LOT bigger than Lincoln, so it was a neat feeling to be in a really large crowd of runners. Runners Edge provided pace group leaders for the full marathon, so I decided to start with the 5:15 group since that equals out to about a 12 min/mile pace.

The first couple of miles were through downtown, then we headed up the biggest hill of the race to the Liberty Memorial. After that we headed over towards Westport and the Plaza. It was fun to run through some of the most scenic parts of the city. Several of the people in our group were from my regular RE pace group, so we were having a great time chatting it up and enjoying the run. The course split just after mile 6, and the rest of my group headed off for the full marathon course while I continued on for the half. I was still feeling great and kept at the same pace I had been for the first 6 miles. At this point, I actually started PASSING people! That never happens! Usually I am the one being passed!

The next few miles were pretty uneventful, and I chatted with a few people here and there to help pass the time. Pretty soon I was at the last aid station, and they had up a bunch of signs saying “next stop, finish line!”, and things like that. I got a little choked up at this point, because even though I was just doing the half, I was imagining how I would be feeling at about mile 24 in 2 weeks. We headed down through the 18th & Vine Jazz District, and they had a jazz band out on one of the corners playing, so I clapped and cheered for them. Actually, one of the neat things about this race was that they had bands every couple of miles. The first half when I was with my pace group we had clapped and yelled for all of them, so I kept it up once I was by myself.

I kept waiting for the first marathon finishers to pass me, and it wasn’t until after mile 12 that they did. Two guys passed me about 5 minutes apart, and that was it. Between mile 12 and 13, people all around me were walking and saying that they couldn’t wait to be done, and I was so happy that I was still feeling good. I was one of those people who thought I was going to die around mile 10 at the first half I did, so this was a definite improvement.

After I turned the last corner, it was about 2 blocks to the finish line, so I picked it up and ran on in. I looked at my watch; 2:35! Yeah! I know that’s still not fast, but I held a consistent pace for the entire 13 miles which made me very happy. And I still felt great, which is what I had been hoping for since this was part of my taper. Given that, I know I can push it harder and do a half in under 2:30 next time.

I found Dawn, who had finished a little while before me, and then Dan found us which surprised me a little because he had gone out the night before and hadn’t even been home when I left the house at 5:30. So I was happy that he had made it down to the race. We waited for Erin to finish, and then went to Eggct for a well deserved post-race breakfast.

Next up: IMFL!!!!!!!

My list

2007-10-17T13:59:00.000-05:00

I decided I had better finally start making a packing list. I've broken it down by day, and so far here is what I need to pack just for race day. Notably missing is my BIKE (which is going down with Eric's parents) and my pop tarts, cheezits, and Gatorade that I'll have to buy in PCB:

- 2 pair goggles
- anti-fog
- wetsuit
- swim suit
- bike shorts
- tri top
- 2 sports bras
- bike jersey
- bike shoes
- bento box
- saddle bag
- 2 pair of bike socks
- 2 pair of arm warmers
- Bike helmet
- Sunglasses & spare lenses
- Running shorts
- 2 pair of running socks
- Cotton balls
- Tape
- New Skin
- Bandaids
- Hat and visor
- Long pants
- Long sleeve t-shirt
- Jacket
- Crocs
- Flip flops
- Water bottles
- 2 small towels
- Gu (20)
- Spare tires
- Spare tubes
- Co2 (4)
- Body glide
- Electrolytes
- Race belt
- Vaseline

Enough with the rain!

2007-10-15T11:59:00.001-05:00

Seriously, I am through training in the rain. I was scheduled to run 20 miles on Saturday, my last LONG run before Florida, and those of you in and around KC know how bad it stormed Saturday morning. The thunder woke me up at about 4, and I laid there awake until my alarm went off at 5 hoping that the storm would blow over. But no such luck. So I got up and headed over to our meeting point. The rain let up a little bit as I was leaving the house, so I was hopeful that it would stop all together.

Kris and I usually run 2 miles before the main group start just to get them out of the way, but it was lightning quite a bit when we got there at 6, so we decided to just wait until 6:30 and start with the rest of the group. The lightning didn’t decrease, and it was raining pretty hard again by the time 6:30 rolled around. Not many people showed up (wonder why??) so Eladio had to combine several groups so that people wouldn’t be running alone in the dark and the rain. Most people in my group were only going 8 or 10 miles, but one person was going 20. As we started out, I was still debating about whether or not I was actually going to do 20 miles.

The first 2 miles were on the trail along Prairie Star Parkway, and were actually pretty enjoyable. It wasn’t raining TOO hard, so it was kind of nice to be out in the rain. At least I wasn’t hot. I don’t know if my skin was absorbing the rain or what, but by the time we got to the aid station at mile 2 I had to pee really bad. Luckily, there was a nice wooded area right by the trail there, so I just went back in there and dropped trou. Much better. I also ditched my long sleeve shirt at this point because it was soaked and weighing me down. It wasn’t overly cold, so I felt fine in a sleeveless top.

We kept chugging along, thinking the storm HAD to blow over, but it wasn’t. The rain and lightning weren’t letting up at all, in fact it almost seemed to get worse as we went on. At mile 4, the other guy that was doing 20 miles had gotten way ahead of us, and most other people turned around. There were a couple of other ladies doing 10 miles, so I at least had a little company for the next mile. After they turned around at mile 5, I was all by myself. I couldn’t see anyone ahead of me, and there was nobody behind me. Great. The sun had finally come up enough to that there was a little bit of light, so that was good. As I got close to mile 6, I finally passed some people going the other direction. Just about then, the clouds really opened up and it just POURED. This was the kind of rain that I wouldn’t want to be driving in, let alone out running in. I was so tempted to turn around, but I kept thinking “an Ironman wouldn’t make excuses and turn around”, so I kept going. At the mile 6 aid station, I had to pee again, but it was in the middle of a residential neighborhood. I figured I was already soaked and it was raining hard enough that nobody would notice, so I just stood there and pissed my shorts while I drank some Gatorade. It actually felt kind of liberating!

After that, the course turned down this country road, and I was sure I was going the wrong way. Just when I was ready to turn back, I saw some Runners Edge flags and knew I was actually going the right way. Running down a country road by yourself in the middle of an early morning thunderstorm is a little surreal. I turned onto another road, and was surprised to see that it was a frontage road along K-7. It was raining so hard that I hadn’t even been able to hear any traffic. About that time my stomach dropped and I had to go. NOW. But I was right along the highway, and there weren’t many trees. Every tree and bush I passed I debated about whether or not it would hide me very well. Much to my delight, right at mile 7 I came up on Smiley’s Golf Complex and noticed that there were a couple of cars in the parking lot and the lights were on in the club house. The rain and lightning also picked up significantly right about then, so I decided to head in and beg for them to let me use the bathroom. I was surprised to get up to the door and see a couple of other Runners Edge people taking cover there. They were all doing 20 miles too, so I would have some company.
We waited a few minutes for the rain to let up a tad, and then headed out again. This was beginning to not be fun. We made it to the aid station at mile 8: only 2 more miles to the turn around! My shoes were soaked and starting to get very uncomfortable, but I figured I could make it. Right as we got to the aid station, Shawn pulled up and asked if any of us wanted a ride. We all said no, even though I was tempted to take one. My shoes and socks were soaked and were getting very uncomfortable, and I was cold. But I really wanted to get those 20 miles in. We had to cross the highway and run along another frontage road, and by the time we got across the highway, 2 more RE people had pulled up in their cars asking if we wanted a ride. Why would I want a ride? Isn’t running 20 miles in the middle of a thunderstorm normal??

As we got to the 10 mile aid station, the rain let up substantially and we thought it was going to stop. But as we turned around and headed back, the rain came back on full force. And it was painful! The wind was blowing it straight into my face so I had to keep my head down and turned to the side, and I noticed that the rain was bouncing off the road. Hey wait, that’s not rain! That’s HAIL! No wonder it hurts!! I was officially miserable at that point. I was cold, wet, my feet hurt, my hips hurt, and now it was hailing on me. Just as I was thinking that, another RE guy pulled up in his car and asked if I wanted a ride. “No, I’m fine, I’ll make it”. WHAT?! He drove off and I just about beat myself upside the head. Why didn’t I take a ride!? Because I am doing an Ironman in 3 weeks and I didn’t want to be a baby and puss out of my last 20 mile run. Either that or I am just stupid.

We made it back to the aid station at mile 8, and the guy in charge of it was there waiting for us to come through so he could clean it up. “Does anybody want a ride back?” Again, I said no. I kept shuffling along, and now my feet were REALLY hurting. Wet socks and shoes rub my feet really bad. I was not a happy camper. The cotton balls and tape that I use to save my pinky toes had long since worked their way loose and were wadded up in the bottoms of my socks. So I had my toes blistering up on top of the general pain in the rest of my feet. As we neared the aid station at mile 6, I was still thinking that I could tough it out, but the guy in charge of that one was there to break it down and before I could stop myself I asked for a ride back. Aaahh!! I wanted to cry, from my feet hurting so bad and feeling stupid for taking a ride. On the way back, he said that most people had taken a ride back in quite a while ago, so I was kind of proud that I stuck it out as long as I did.

When I got back to my car, I took my shoes and socks off and both of my socks were bloody. D’oh! I guess my feet really DID hurt! My pinky toes were all blistered up, but aside from that, I didn’t really see anything that would have bled. My feet were red from being rubbed so much, I guess maybe they had bled? Who knows. I was just happy to get my feet out of those shoes and put on a dry shirt and pants. So I only got in 14, but given the conditions, it was just as hard as any other 20 mile run I’ve done.

Ridin' in the rain

2007-10-08T16:52:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess I should have no more fear of riding in the rain! I don’t know why it’s always scared me, but it has. I guess I just had this picture in my head of me sliding around a wet road on my bike, or not being able to stop or something. But, I rode 90 miles in the rain yesterday with no incident. We had planned on riding 100, but it WAS pretty miserable, so we packed it in after 90. Court and I rode with her friend Melissa who did IMFL in 05 and IMLOU this year. She had some great tips for us about the race in general, and made me feel a little better about my level of preparation.

We started at Court’s house in Blue Springs and then swung by Melissa’s place to pick her up. She only lives about 5 miles from Courtney, so it was pretty convenient. Then we headed out towards the route we had ridden on one time before since it has some nice flat stretches. I don’t know all of the road names out that way, but there was a flat stretch just west of the Lake City ammo plant that we did a couple of times, another one just west of Buckner, and another one on the east side of Buckner. Most people think that Kansas and Missouri are flat, but that is not the case! It’s hard to find nice stretches of flat road to train on, so we had to do the few that were available several times. Hills are good for strength, but since Florida is flat, we do need to get used to the constant pedaling and learn how to keep from slitting our throats out of sheer boredom.

About 5 miles into the ride, it started sprinkling, and it just kept getting heavier. About 10 miles in, Court was in front and went down as she rounded a corner. It’s been dry lately, so this rain was really making the road slick. She got back up quick, and wasn’t too banged up. It kept raining off and on the entire time we were out, so I think we were all pretty conservative with how we were riding to avoid any more spills.

On the way back home, we passed a house out in the country with a wrought iron fence in the front yard, and the guy was mowing his yard with his two dogs out running around. The dogs saw us ride by, and ran down the fence “chasing” us. We thought it was kind of cute, and I made a comment that they wanted to come run with us. We got past the house, and the dogs were out of the yard running down the street after us! They were just little fluffy pooches, so we weren’t worried about them attacking us or anything, but they just kept running right along side of us. We were in the middle of a 2 mile long incline, so we weren’t going all that fast, so the dogs were able to keep up with us pretty well. The road was pretty winding, and I was afraid that a car would come around a curve and hit them because they were running down the middle of the road. So finally, we pulled over and called the number on their tags. No answer. We waited a few minutes and called again. Still no answer. Well crap. We didn’t want them to get hit, but we couldn’t wait around all day. So we kept going, and they kept following us. At the top of the hill there was a fire station, so we pulled in there and Court told them “I’ve got this dog problem. Now it’s your problem”. At least we were rid of the dogs!

After we got cleaned up, Melissa came over and we watched her highlight video from Florida. It was a pretty crappy video, but it was still exciting to see! Especially the start. I really wish I would be able to actually watch the start of our race, 2000 people running into the ocean at the same time is quite a sight.

26 days!