It’s been a long time since I resurrected an old post for Flashback Friday, so today I’m pulling out one of my favorites from last June. This is actually one of my favorite posts ever, because it’s the recap of my first triathlon!

I’ll be back on Monday with (hopefully) some very exciting news. I’ve been trying to keep it under wraps so as not to jinx ourselves. No, we’re not pregnant…but it rhymes with “mouse”. And it’s not the “mouse” that I talked about before.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

OH…did you check out the new site design and layout? If you’re reading me in Google Reader, make sure to click through so you can check it out. p.s…do you like it? If so, you should email Emily, The Blog Fairy. She’s kind of a miracle worker. I designed the layout in thesis, and Emily made the lovely header for me. I think it’s kind of adorable, and My Gazelle says that the picture of “me” sitting down with the laptop captures the essence of me perfectly…right down to the hand gesture. Hilarous.

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June 28, 2010

Yesterday at this time, I was at the end of the bike course of my first triathlon.

Making memories, and living my life as a “Goal Making Machine” (thank you Mizfit)!

I have to first tell you guys that I am so proud of myself. I am even more proud of myself today than I was the day after my marathon. I’m not sure what the difference is, but something about doing this triathlon was more difficult to me. For this event, I had to be swimbikerunmentally prepared.

Nothing (and I mean NOTHING) could have really prepared me for the reality of this swim. When we stepped in the water, I felt a creepy “squish” between my toes that does not happen in my chlorinated gym pool. Swimming in a murky lake is much different than swimming in a pool. Don’t get me wrong…I swam in many a murky lake/creek/river growing up in the country. However, the last time that I did that, I walked out of the “CRICK” (as we call it a back home) with leeches on my feet.

Let’s just say that memory has scarred me a little.

My wave left at 7:49AM, and by 7:51AM, I was fully immersed in an MMA-style match with more seaweed than I even care to discuss. I am thinking about changing my name to “Swims With Seaweed” after this ordeal. It was really gross, and I was not prepared for the seaweed aspect of this swim at all.

Here is my depiction of the swim route:

Wherein the black squiggly lines inserted in the picture are colonies of seaweed. The big pictures of black squiggly lines indicate periods when I felt like I was in a bad horror film, and I was the first scantily-clad swimmer on screen. We all know what happens to her…she gets engulfed by the seaweed and dies. Yes, I daydreamed this movie scene several times while fighting with the seaweed monster.

Besides the seaweed throwing off my groove, I am also a very slow swimmer. As a result, every wave that left after mine passed me. Just imagine those scenes on The Discovery Channel where all of the animals in the desert get spooked, and they all run full speed ahead in the same direction. Unfortunately, there’s that one poor little slow ass Desert Mule Deer who gets caught up in the mess and gets trampled on. Yesterday, my friends, I was the mule deer.

I could literally hear each of the waves as they closed in on me…

“thwap…thwap…thwap…thwap…”

As I heard the sound get louder and louder, I would start sucking more and more water as they passed. Eventually, I figured out that I could time it so that when I heard the “thwap-thwapping” getting louder and louder, I’d flip on my back and backstroke until they passed.

When I was somewhere between the 230 yard mark and that next patch of killer seaweed, I heard the race director across the lake on his microphone announcing that it was 8:25AM. I knew that my wave left at 7:49AM, and if I didn’t finish the swim in an hour, I was disqualified from the race. It was at that point that I started to really find my mojo, and even though I had to freestyle/backstroke interval my way through the rest of the killer seaweed patch, I finished in about 43 minutes.

Entering transition 1 (T1), I was completely out of it. I had very efficiently organized all of my items into “swim”, “bike”, and “run” bags of their own, but for some reason I couldn’t wrap my brain around where to begin. I was trying to catch my breath and get my wits about me, and it took me much longer than I expected. I also couldn’t get my Garmin working at first (for some reason it took me through the whole setup menu). However, I really was not concerned about racing out of T1–I wanted to make sure that I didn’t forget anything. At this point, I took a Gel (I use GU Chocolate and Vanilla, and they are yummy!), got on all of my gear, and rolled out. It took me 9:22 (I’m still laughing about this time…it didn’t seem like that long).

Nothing very eventful happened on the bike. I knew that there were going to be parts that were difficult (the course is described as “rolling hills”, which is very accurate), but all in all it was just as difficult as I expected.

It also helped that I had already done a couple of practice rides on the bike course, so there were no surprises for me. In hindsight, I’m really glad that I had already done the bike and run courses in advance because it made me feel more prepared on race day.

I took 2 gels during the 17.5 mile bike–one around mile 5, and one at mile 10. I also drank 1.5 bottles of water because I knew it was incredibly hot outside and I was sweating my arse off, so water was very necessary. I finished the bike course feeling really good. I was tired, but surprisingly anxious to start the run and finish the race.

Going into the race, I had already decided that even if I walked the whole run, I was going to still finish in less than the required 4 hours, 30 minutes. I also decided that if I NEEDED to walk the whole run, I was not going to diminish my accomplishment in hindsight just because I wasn’t able to run. A triathlon is still a triathlon.

In Transition 2, I took another gel, put on my running shoes and rolled out. My legs were feeling very strange, and I immediately knew that I was going to have to at least walk the hills. One thing about this race is that the bike and run are both very hilly, so I was going to do what I had to do to finish at that point. I ended up jogging most of the flat parts of the course, and power walking up the hills. I tried to jog the last hill when I only had about .25 mile until the finish, but my legs just weren’t having it. I walked it and then ran to the finish.

Hooray!! I finished!!

My official time was 3:03:43. If I had taken less time in the first transition, I would’ve finished in under 3 hours. I’ll probably laugh about that until the day I die.

But, regardless of how long it took me, I did it. And I’m proud of my accomplishment.

I checked another goal off of my list.

I’M A TRIATHLETE!!

I can’t lie. Initially, I signed up for the Yuengling VA Beach 1/2 Marathon for the beer.

Turns out, I got home from Virginia Beach on Monday afternoon and realized that I hadn’t drank a beer the whole time I was there. I was preoccupied.

This view.

These people.

That moon.

Those boys.

I’ve had a few people over the past week tell me that they couldn’t wait to read my race report because I always seem to have so much fun during races.  Hearing this kind of makes me get that wiggly-warm feeling in my heart, because that’s what I always try to express to you when I write my race reports.

No matter what, I have fun.

Even when I was wishing that I could curl up and cry on the side of the road next to a rat pancake in Baltimore City, I can still look back and tell you that I was having fun. Just before I had visions of curling up in the fetal position and quitting, I was rounding a beautiful lake, eating pretzels, and smiling and laughing with the photographer who I was hiding my bib number from.

If I’m not going to have fun, why would I even bother?

The Virginia Beach 1/2 Marathon was no exception to this rule.

When we drove into Virginia Beach, entering from the end of the Atlantic Avenue strip, I have to admit that I was skeptical. Any of you who have been to a popular beach town know that the outskirts of the strip are usually less desirable than the middle of the strip. I’m sure that there are some perfectly lovely shops and restaurants in these areas of Virginia Beach, but I was more comfortable staying pretty close to our hotel, for obvious reasons.

Like the ocean view.

When we arrived, we promptly checked into our hotel (the Courtyard Marriott Oceanfront), and found a place to fill our bellies.

{prepare to be amazed by a series of iPhone shots}

Neither the view nor the menu at Waterman’s disappointed.  I highly recommend the fish tacos.

After we ate, we went directly over to the Virginia Beach Convention Center for the race expo. I’ve become accustomed to seeing race expos inside the ballroom of one of the host hotels, so this was a little different than expected. It would have been a long trek from our hotel on foot if we didn’t have a car, so I was feeling a bit sorry for all of the people that I noticed who were walking there.

The race expo was heavy on the “sales”, and light (non-existent) on the freebies.  Here is a picture of Run, Denise, Run’s goody bag and marathon finisher shirt.  I didn’t take a picture of my shirt, but it’s basically the same thing with short sleeves.

Inside that bag was a race information book.

The end.

No fuel, no goodies, no freebies.  Not even a stinking coupon to another race that I wouldn’t otherwise want to register for.  It was kind of surprising, actually.

Walking around the expo, there was mainly just a lot of stuff for sale. I managed to snag a pair of these beauty-full runners on the cheap from Chevy Chase Running Company (based in Chevy Chase, MD).  After catching wind that the guy selling us these Newton’s was from Silver Spring, MD, I requested the “Hometown Discount”. He obliged. I smiled.

I also bought a pair of Snuggbuds, which I’ve seen at every race expo from here to South Carolina, but I never gave in to the hype. However, this little lady is quite the salesperson.

{and incidentally, she is all over the place, because this pic of her is from the Macworld show in California last year…and all I had to do was Google “Snuggbuds” to find her.}

I will have a review soon on both the Newton Motion runners and the Snuggbuds, since I wore both for this race!

I saw a few (un-purchased) shirts that suited me well.

I mean, it’s true.

So my pace isn’t slow…it’s “frugal”.

I wasn’t super impressed by the race expo, but I also wasn’t disappointed by it. They had everything that we needed (and then some), but I did find some of the people at the booths to be a little more aggressive than I’m accustomed to.

There was one booth of people selling Vemma, which I had never heard of, but I was put off by their approach (“HI THERE MA’AM…VEMMA…LIQUID NUTRITION…YADA YADA…WANT TO TRY A SAMPLE?”) to the point that I wasn’t willing to even approach and try it. You know those kiosks in the mall where people ask you if they can ask you a question, then they try to put rogue lotions on your face and hands, so when you see them from a distance, you always try to check your phone so that they won’t make eye contact with you?

Yeah, that’s what it felt like. Maybe it’s just me.

We spent a good 1-1.5 hours at the expo on Friday, and we ended up going back on Saturday with the rest of our group, and did another loop around the booths.

After the expo, we did some basic exploring of Virginia Beach, and I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and all of the little shops along Atlantic Avenue.  I also loved that on Friday night, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and left the balcony door open, falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves. It was the thing that dreams are made of.

What I didn’t especially love was the part where I woke up at 6AM on Saturday to the sound of a very loud seagull on the railing of our balcony–threatening to encroach on our hotel room-sanctuary and eat every graham cracker in sight.

[this is not "our" noisy bird, but I'm sure they are related in some way]

Luckily, the bird stayed outside where he belonged. An incident like that could have really ruined my race experience, no?

We had a pretty uneventful day on Saturday besides the race expo. We did, however, enjoy a very carb-a-licious pasta buffet at the Courtyard Marriott restaurant, conveniently located inside of our hotel.  We attempted to make reservations elsewhere, but apparently other people had that same idea months ago, so we stayed right at the Marriott. This turned out to be a great decision, because the food was lovely, there was no crowd, and when we were sufficiently stuffed full of simple carbs, we just hopped into the elevator and rolled into our own comfy beds.  Perfect.

On Sunday morning, the 1/2 marathon race started at 7AM.  We were staying only about 3 blocks from the race start, so we lucked out in that sense.  I was happy to see that the race had a wave start, which made things a little less crazy when the gun went off.  I was glad that out of the 8,500 1/2 marathon participants, they all didn’t have to run past me to get to where they needed to be.  That is the beauty of a wave start.

I started off a little bit faster than I probably should have, but I guess I overestimated the speed training that I’ve been trying to stick with since the Myrtle Beach 1/2. It’s funny how a race course can seem like it’s going to be so similar (both the Myrtle and VA Beach courses claim to be “flat”), but one course can feel so different than the other.  I felt awesome the whole time I was doing the MB 1/2 (other than the fact that I had to stop at every public restroom available for the first 6 miles), but I wasn’t quite as confident at VA Beach. It was just a feeling, I can’t explain it.

I can say, however, that the course was very nice.  I was happy with the beach and ocean views when we passed through the grounds of Fort Story [p.s...not that I'd ever join the military, but if I did, it would only be because I could live at Fort Story], and I also loved the beginning of the race, running under an umbrella of pine trees. The smell brought me right back home to New York!

My only gripes about the course were a) the condition of some of the roads that we were running on. Some were uneven with deep tire channels, and that makes it difficult for me to keep my IT Band in check, and b) since the marathon and 1/2 marathon pass each other a few times going in opposite directions, all runners are forced to share 2 lanes of a street. This made things pretty crowded at times, and I even found myself having to sidestep through people…and I’m the SLOW one.

At no point did I dread having to keep running, but at no point did I feel awesome about running. But I had fun! One of the best parts of the race was an entertaining game of leap frog that I played with a woman who was doing Galloway 1:1′s. Since I was doing 5:1′s, I was running for longer periods than she was.  It seemed like every time my timer would tell me to walk, hers would tell her to run. We played this game for a good 3-4 miles, and I finally decided that I was over it, so I kicked my stubby little legs into turbo.

And by “turbo”, I mean a 10:00/mile pace.

It’s all relative, right?

After the race, I met up with my other homies, and we waited for Rob to finish. He was the only one from our group who decided to do the marathon in Virginia Beach.

He finished strong, as usual.

Although I didn’t feel like it, it turns out that I finished this race about 6 minutes faster than the Myrtle Beach 1/2. I find it interesting these days that I really value my race experience much more than I value my race finish time. Virginia Beach was a great place to run my 4th 1/2 marathon, but it wouldn’t have been as enjoyable without the people that I shared it with.

Although the two t-shirts above do suit me well, I’d like to think that I just run slower so that I can enjoy the scenery more.

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Just a reminder in case you missed it–I’d love if you can start spreading the word about Blogging For A Change.  The more attention our little charity gets, the more money we can donate to Japan!  If you can think of any companies or products that you’d like to see included in the raffle, please post links and such into the comments on my Blogging For A Change post.  The more times we link to companies, the more attention we’ll get!

Please share the link with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter!  Here’s a short version of the link so you can copy and paste it easier:  Blogging For A Change raffle, to benefit Japan!  http://bit.ly/fZVX1P

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Today, my regular Cupcake Friday post has been postponed for no good reason, other than the fact that I am unprepared!  I’ve had a very busy week, and haven’t pulled the beautiful Apple and Coconut Cream Pie Cupcake pictures off of my camera.

Sorry.

In the meantime, please do go elsewhere to get your cupcake fix.

The other reason why I’m unprepared is because Me and My Gazelle, Rob and Wifey are leaving today at 1PM for the Virginia Beach Shamrock 1/2 Marathon!  Road trip!  It’s about a 4-5 hour drive from Maryland, so we’ll arrive with plenty of time to enjoy ourselves prior to the race on Sunday.

I’ll have a full report next week, but think happy thoughts for me.

I am so impressed with everyone’s comments yesterday on my post about hating Weight Watchers.  I have come to the conclusion that I’m going to hang it up with WW and keep it movin’.  I’ve already decided what direction I’ll take going forward, but I’ll save that for another post.

Frankly, I have more exciting things to talk about.

Mountains.

[source]

Waterfalls.

[source]

Beautiful cities flanked with castles.

[source]

Castles.

[source]

Did I mention castles?

[source]

As little girls, My Sista and I would listen to my father’s hilarious stories about all of the trouble he got into while he was a US Marine stationed in Scotland.  The stories usually involved boozing, drunk driving, busted cars/teeth/appendages, and almost always ended with a funny punch line.  That’s just how my Dad tells stories…

Monotone…do as I say, not as I do…monotone…monotone…GUT-BUSTINGLY FUNNY!!!!

I’ve come to love his stories, and the fact that he loved his stay in Scotland was never lost on My Sista and I.  Since we were little, we’ve wanted to make a trip to the United Kingdom to visit Scotland.  Not only due to my Dad’s funny stories, but also because we know that our heritage on my Dad’s side is from Scotland.

Unfortunately, this isn’t one of those trips that you can just take without proper planning.  After many, many years of talking about it, we’ve finally planned a trip to Scotland!

We’ll be traveling in a large group with a bunch of family and friends, which makes this trip literally my dream come true.  To make this trip even more memorable, we’ll be kicking off our arrival in Scotland with a run!  A few people (My Sista, My Gazelle, Mike and Rob) will be doing the Baxter’s Loch Ness Marathon (yes, My Gazelle is running a MARATHON!).  Me and Wifey will be doing the Baxter’s River Ness 10K (sadly, they don’t have a 1/2 marathon event).

I seriously cannot even explain to you how excited I am about this trip.  No.words.

The thought of running a race in Scotland just gives me cold chills.  I have literally been reduced to tears on several occasions over this trip.  Such as when I booked the airfare.

I kid.

We’ll be spending 6 days in Scotland (Inverness & Edinburgh), then some of us will be flying to Dublin for 2 nights, so that I can hopefully become acquainted with another of my many guilty pleasures.

[source]

Because really…don’t people just walk around the streets of Dublin Riverdancing?  In my head they do.

Although the details of the trip are a little sketchy still, I’ll keep you guys posted as they unfold!

Have any of you been to Scotland??

What is your dream vacation??

Firstly, I have no pictures of our trip to Myrtle Beach. I’m sorry. I slack sometimes.

Secondly, you probably wouldn’t really care to see pictures of this trip to Myrtle Beach anyway. This trip mainly included going to the movies [we fully took advantage of the fact that matinees were $5.50 per person], eating, and laughing.  Laughing.  Lots of laughing.  We took this trip with our couple besties [remember Robert?  I love Wifey just as much as I love him...and she's a great running buddy who doesn't mind my over-sharing nature.]

Thirdly, if I had actually taken pictures of this trip, I would have been sure to properly document all of the times I had to stop during the 1/2 marathon. I honestly lost about 15 to 20 minutes making bathroom stops between miles 2-6.

A few months ago, Jen, a PriorFatgirl wrote a post about the “problems” that we sometimes have as runners. Lots of bathroom breaks. My Sista taught me a very valuable trick about avoiding this problem last year, but unfortunately I didn’t pack properly for Myrtle Beach.

Poops.  I forgot.

Rather than become frustrated with this minor setback, I decided to use it to my advantage.  Fortunately, by the time that I reached mile 6, I was feeling fine, and the frequent breaks at the beginning of the race encouraged me to pick up my pace more from miles 6-13.

Since I always feel strongest at the beginning of the race, I had planned to run straight for the first 20-30 minutes.  I began at a very slow place so that I wouldn’t burn myself out, and this was a great decision in hind sight.  I usually start off too fast [because I'm usually running with faster runners and I try to keep up], but this time I made up my mind to let Wifey pull out ahead since she’s faster.

…bye Wifey!

I really don’t mind when people leave me in their dust.  I usually prefer to run alone anyway.

I ran my first two miles at around a 13:00-14:00 pace, and then had to stop for break # 1.  After that break, I started running 5:1 intervals, and I carried on with that plan through the rest of the race.  Once I got through my “situation”, I was able to pick up my running intervals to a pace between 10:30-11:30/mile.  This had me rather impressed, especially since I was feeling awesome running this pace.

The peak of the race for me from a physical standpoint was around the 8th mile.  I seriously couldn’t believe how great I felt.  I was enjoying the flat course, smiling, and probably eating some Cheez-It’s.

Cheez-It’s proved to be a great mid-race snack for me this go-around.  Something about eating Cheez-It’s at mile 8 made me feel like a rebel.

I planned my run intervals around water stations so that I wouldn’t end up walking just before a water station, then walking through the water station.  If my run interval was technically over just before a water station, I’d continue running until I grabbed a cup of water, then used that as my walk interval.  It proved to be effective, since I was able to walk through all of the water stops.

In addition to my rebellious Cheez-It consumption, I also slurped on 3 GU Energy Gels throughout the race (the Chocolate Outrage is my favorite).  In the past, I have used ShotBlox, but I found that I had a difficult time eating them while running, and the fact that I had to breathe through my nose to chew caused me to snot on myself uncontrollably.  This is never good on race day, since there are sneaky cameras all over the place.

[p.s...am I the only one whose nose runs uncontrollably while running--even on hot days?]

When I got to mile 12, I was feeling worn out.  Just before I got to BB&T Coastal Field, where the race ended, I had to take an unscheduled walk break, but then I managed to pull it together and run to the finish.  Because one must never walk across a finish line.

All in all, this was a really nice race for me.  The course was not very scenic (despite the fact that they market it as a race along the ocean, it’s really not), but it was flat.  I like flat.

My official race time was 2:50:41, which puts me at about a 13:00/mile pace.  This is interesting to me, considering the fact that my pace at last January’s Disney Princess 1/2 was 13:35/mile, after having died and came back to life from October 2009′s Baltimore Marathon.  This year, I’m running at around the same pace, but I’m feeling awesome with no injuries!

I’m moving right along to the Virginia Beach 1/2 marathon over St. Patrick’s Day weekend, and really looking forward to it!  I have 3 training weeks until the run, so I’ll be focusing on improving my pace between now and then to see if I can pick it up a little.  My goal for the VA Beach 1/2 is to finish between 2:30-2:40.

I don’t anticipate any problems with meeting that goal…as long as I pack properly.

Here’s a newsflash…

I would be getting a lot more for my money if I actually took these shiny new Asics out of the bag, put them on my feet, and ran.  Although last week I had a mental kick in the pants as far as motivation goes, this did not result in a physical kick in the pants.

I am a chronic procrastinator.  I’ll just do it tomorrow.

Last week, I also received the cutest necklace from Sporty Girl Jewelry:

Mine actually says “26.2″ rather than “13.1″, in order to commemorate my marathon.  I thought this would be a nice way to remember my marathon, and hopefully give myself some additional motivation to get moving.  The necklace is adorable and dainty, and I haven’t taken it off since I received it…

But it didn’t make me run.

Now, it’s time for me to keep it real.  I’ve come to the realization that I’ve been doing this rationalization thing.  Anytime someone asks me about my 2011 race calendar, I say, “well, I didn’t really sign up for any because I hope to be pregnant next year…”

IronGirl Columbia, which is a race that is quite literally in my own backyard, will happen next summer, and I was “hoping” that I’d be pregnant, so I didn’t sign up.  In fact, all of the triathlons that I would have liked to do would occur next year at prime pregnancy time, so I didn’t sign up.  Although it doesn’t make sense to sign up for a bunch of non-refundable, non-transferable races that I might not be able to participate in, it also doesn’t make sense for me to put my life on hold because I am “hoping to be pregnant”.

Not to mention, the fact that I “hope to be pregnant” next year should not be keeping me from getting back on my previous schedule of working out, and YES…even training for a race if I feel like it.  If I get pregnant in the meantime, then fantastic.  If I don’t, then at least I’ll be feeling like myself again from a “professional sweater” standpoint.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Master Trainer, Master Trainer’s Wife, My Gazelle, Myself (and a few other ancillary people) are working on getting a non-profit organization set up.  Part of Team Rep Your City (TRYC) was the running club that I talked about last week.  Although the running club won’t be active until after TRYC officially launches in the spring, ideas are flying.

…and race calendars are being filled for TRYC.

This, my friends…will make me run.

Yes, I registered for the Yuengling Virginia Beach Shamrock 1/2 Marathon [please clicky and go look at the course map--you'll die].  I’ll begin officially training next week, with a short run this weekend just to ensure that I can even run 3 miles without keeling over.  I’m sure I can, but you know…I’m mostly just short on confidence right now.

I registered for this race because, 1) it’s sponsored by Yuengling.  Really…how can you go wrong with Yuengling? 2) the course is FLAT, 3) I’ll be running with my TRYC friends, and that’s all fun,  4) it’s Virginia Beach…so it’s like a built-in vacation.

I have decided to enlist the help of my friend, Jeff Galloway [we go way back], and his 1/2 marathon training plan for this race.  I will be purposely training to walk/run this 1/2 marathon, which will hopefully be a much kinder and gentler way for my body to participate.

Have any of you used the Galloway method to complete a race?

Am I crazy?

Wait…you should already know by now that I’m crazy.  Don’t answer that.

*[p.s...yes, that IS the Tory Burch bag that I mentioned in my post about Christmas last week.  I bought it for My Sista, but I decided to keep it.  My Gazelle thinks it's because it's adorable and I can't part with it.  Truth is, yes, it's adorable and I don't WANT to part with it, but the thing is ENORMOUS, and it would be way too big for her!  Lesson #1 in eBay buying: check the measurements!]

Sometimes, the only way that I’m able to get myself out of a rut, be it fitness, life, personal or career-related, is to make an impulsive decision and jump in with both feet.

Heck.

This is how I make about 90% of my decisions, to be honest.  I tend to be a very “go with your gut” kind of gal, so when things need a little shaking up, I make a crazy decision.

Heck.

The whole reason why this blog is in existence is because of a rash decision.  I signed up for a race that I had no business doing.  But, relative to any other physical accomplishments that I had ever made, I basically won that first 15K in my own mind, just by signing up.

Before I even finished that first race, I signed up for an even longer race that I REALLY had no business doing.

Then, I signed up for a race that I never (in my worst nightmares) believed that I would sign up for (much less complete).

After the injurious nightmare that was training for THAT race, I took a step back and reevaluated.  I don’t like being injured.  I like to walk without pain.  I really enjoy spending my Saturday mornings sipping coffee and baking muffins rather than sobbing on the side of the road, approximately 10 miles from home.

I owned it.

Distance running is not for everyone.

Distance running is not for me.

After that shocking revelation, I still didn’t learn.

Impulse struck again, and I signed up for the Disney Princess 1/2 in March 2010.  Again, I suffered through this race with IT Band issues.

Some people never learn.

I never learn.

Until recently.

Rather than focusing on how many miles I could run in 2010, or how fast I could run those miles in, I decided to focus on having fun. For some people, running long distances is fun. For me, not so much.  As a result, I signed up for my first triathlon.  Then I signed up for my second.

Despite the fact that I fought seaweed and zebra mussels, and had my life flash before me on several occasions during each of the races, I loved them.  Really, really loved them.

I learned a lesson.

Stick with the activities that make you feel good.  Do the things that make you smile, regardless of what ‘everyone else’ is doing.

As a result, I’ve taken a much kinder, gentler approach to my future athletic plans.  Because of everything going awry in my life since my August 7th IronGirl Triathlon, I’ve only been able to work out a handful of times since then.  Only recently have I been given the green light from my doctor to resume my normal activity.

Normal activity.

I don’t even know what my “normal activity” is at this point.  I ran 2.25 miles last Saturday, and that’s all I’ve really felt inclined to do (besides some mall walking during the week).  I’m OK with that, but something interesting has happened.

I want to run.

I actually want to run.

But just a little.

Although not nearly as drastic as a marathon, 1/2 marathon, triathlon, or even a 15K, I made an impulsive decision today. I needed to shake things up–remember why I love sweating so much. I signed up for the 2010 Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis this morning.

It’s a 5K.

I haven’t run 5K since August 7th.  I snotted, cried, sweated, limped, and chafed my way through a Marathon just a year ago, but now I need to actually train to run a 5K.  That kind of makes me smile.

I’m really starting from square 1 again, and that’s OK with me.  It’ll be fun.

________

I signed up for this race (again…you can read the pathetic story of my first experience here) as part of Team Rep Your City, which is a brand new running club organized by my running coach/bff (whose praises I’ve sung for the past 5 years, both on blog and off).  I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about TRYC in the near future, as we’re all working together to get the club up and running (ha…pun…).

If you’re local and you’d like to run with Team Rep Your City (or donate to the Arthritis foundation for our team), click through to our donation page, and choose either “General Team Donation”, or “Join Our Team”.

Merci.

Je t’aime.

Some of you, it seems, felt blindsided by the news last week that I was doing a triathlon this past weekend.

I mean, how did you not know that I was doing the IronGirl Syracuse?

I’ve only been talking about it constantly for the past 6 months!

Oh. I wasn’t? Really?

Well, maybe once…way back when I originally signed up. I think that I may have briefly mentioned it a few other times along the way, but in all honesty, I talked more about the Celebration Triathlon. The top two reasons why I talked more about Celebration than IronGirl: 1) I was terrified of the Celebration Triathlon, 2) IronGirl happens to have fallen during a time when my life is occurring more aggressively than my training is.

Did I mention that I’m remodeling my kitchen?

Can you believe that yesterday I came home to this?

Yeah.

The point is that my main focus for IronGirl was to do another race with My Sista and my cousin, have as much fun as possible, and just finish. The only way for me to have fun was to relax about it. Although it works for some people, competition and agony are just not fun for me.

Race day started for us on Saturday at 4:30AM. I was not very impressed by this fact, since Friday night included a trip to the hometown bar to see My Sista’s boyfriend’s band play. My Brotha is also in the band, and when I hang out with My Brotha and My Sista together, I always feel like they received every bit of “badass” that my parents were capable of replicating.

There was apparently just not enough badass to be split among the three of us, so while they run fast and are musical geniuses, I’m just a really awesome scrapbooker.

Yeah. Middle child syndrome. It clearly exists.

Anyway. Although that trip to the bar was supposed to only include one Budweiser Select 55, I accidentally drank two. Then, although we were supposed to leave the bar around 11PM, we didn’t leave until 12AM. So, even though we were supposed to get a solid 5 hours of sleep, we only got 4. And, although we were supposed to sleep well that night, neither one of us did.

We woke up and drove to Oneida Shores Park for the race anyway.

Everything seemed to move along quickly after we got to the park. I felt like as soon a we got there, the announcer was telling us that the transition area would close in 30 minutes. I felt a little rushed, but I didn’t let it geek me out.

The transition area was closed around 6:45, and I forced everyone to take pictures until the first wave left at 7:00AM.

I think that My Sista was questioning her decision to hang out with me at this point.

Don’t let that “OMG…you’re SO adopted” look fool you. She thinks I’m awesome.

Then, we watched the first wave make their way around the swim course, and scoped out the strategy.

My strategy: don’t drown.

(p.s…prior to copious amounts of cropping, my ass was the main feature in that picture. Your welcome.)

Going into this race, I thought that the swim was going to be a piece of cake. It was about 1/2 the distance that I had to do for the Celebration Triathlon, and the only thing that made me nervous leading up to this swim was the fact that the lake was apparently overrun by zebra mussels. The race officials allowed swim socks or duct taped feet in order to protect the bottoms of your feet in case you step on any zebra mussels. Of course, I decided to skip both the swim socks and the duct tape because I like to live on the edge.

When the quacking duck sounded for my wave to leave, I quickly realized that I was going to have a problem with this swim. The water is so shallow that I literally could’ve walked the entire swim. Considering the fact that I am already pretty freaked out about open water and I hate seaweed (please do scroll up and read the link to my Celebration Triathlon for the full report), this was not the swim for me.

As soon as I put my face in the water the first time and tried to swim, I panicked. Like, full on shark attack panic. I actually considered getting out of the water and quitting. Coupled with the fact that I was already freaked out about zebra mussels, seeing everything that was going on at the bottom of the lake was too much for my frail mind. Whereas some people are freaked out about NOT being able to see the bottom of the lake, I am very much of the “what I don’t know won’t hurt me” school of thought.

The swim took me forever. I was freaking out. All I knew at the time was that I had to get the swim done and over with so that I could move on. All I know now is that I need more open water practice. Oh yeah, and that I basically came in last place in my wave for the swim.

(insert hysterical laughter from this girl)

Transition 1 took me 5:24. That might seem like a long time to you, but to me, anything was an improvement over the 9:22 that it took me in T1 at the Celebration Triathlon.

(i repeat…insert hysterical laughter from this girl)

I was actually very excited for the bike portion of the race. Although I didn’t do the course beforehand, My Sista told me that it was a really nice ride, full of gentle rolling hills. I love the word “gentle” when it is in front of the words “rolling hills”. I maintained almost a 17 mph pace average for the 18.6 mile bike course, and I really really enjoyed it. I love cycling.

When I finished the bike, my legs were really tired and felt sort of gelatinous. My saving grace was that I knew that the 3.1 mile run was basically flat, and it was an out and back. Something about an out and back makes me really feel relieved. I like having a clearly denoted 1/2 way point. I proudly put on my “i jog” t-shirt, and decided to jog my way to the end of the IronGirl.

I hope that somewhere in the official race pix there is a good pic of me donning this shirt because it is my favorite. I received so many smiles, nods and positive comments about my shirt during the run that it was impossible to not have fun with it. I finished the run in 36:53 (11:53/mile pace), which I was pretty happy with, considering that I’m lucky if I can average that pace without first swimming 600 meters and biking 18.6 miles.

(i repeat…insert hysterical laughter from this girl)

My official race time was 2:07:45, and I’ll take it. I had a ton of fun, and IronGirl is a very positive, uplifting race to do. I pretty much smiled the entire time. I mean…except for that brief part when I was too busy trying not to drown.

Driving home from New York yesterday, I had many miles of construction and one lane traffic to reflect upon the race, the past 2 years of races, and what the future holds. With the knowledge that I had just completed my last race of the year, the only thing that I wanted to do yesterday was run. I keep thinking about how much I love running in the fall, and how sad it is that I’m going to miss the fall racing season. It’s amazing how the grass is always greener, eh?

But, I’m getting married in 2.5 months (wow…), we’re remodeling the kitchen, and I need to get my home life in order (read: unpack my Qtips and mustache bleach).

I’ve developed sort of a love/hate relationship with running at this point. Maybe after some time apart and no pressure to compete, I’ll fall in love with it again.

Or maybe I’ll just scrapbook instead.

I did it!  Another race on my sweat resume!

This was my second year doing The Boilermaker 15K, and for those of you who have only recently started reading ’round these parts, this was actually the first “real” race that I registered for last year.  This race was the reason why this whole blog thingy started with my very first post in November of 2008!  Although I had never in my lifetime ran more than 4 miles, and I had only done a few 5K races up until that point, My Sista convinced me that I could run The Boilermaker.

And I did.

Twice.

This year was much slower than last year, and included a fair amount of walking.  The reason why is because in the midst of training for The Celebration Triathlon, I wasn’t training for 9 miles of hills.  I realized over the past few weeks that although I can do my fair share of multitasking in real life, I am still learning how to multitask from a physical perspective.  Had I thought a little more about my schedule, I would have planned a little better.

Have patience.  I’m still learning.

A better plan would have been to look at The Boilermaker as the major event that I was training for (mileage-wise), and planned my running schedule during triathlon training accordingly.  I’m honestly not really sure why I didn’t consider that, but I didn’t.  We’ll chalk this one up to another learning experience.

It was so fun, and I am honestly not really concerned about my time.  Of course I would have liked to do better this year than last, but the memories of my weekend are worth more than taking a few minutes off of my race time.

The Boilermaker 15K is basically the MAJOR event of the year in Utica, NY.  The race begins among the streets of the city, and ends at the F.X. Matt Brewing Company (Saranac Beer), where a huge party is thrown for all of the finishers.  This race is basically the best and biggest 15K race in the entire country, and has so been voted many times.  Last year was the 30th anniversary of the race, and something along the lines of 11,000 people participated.  The race grows each and every year.

This year was no exception.  There were over 13,000 runners in this years’ Boilermaker, over 6,000 volunteers, somewhere around 20,000 spectators, and 19 aid stations.  It’s an amazingly supported race.  The race packet pickup is smooth, the expo is amazing with tons of vendors and free samples, and the course is packed with spectators.

My favorite spectator. And Hooray, I didn't get "HRTE"!

I have nothing at all negative to say about the race.

Except the hills.  Damn those hills!

One thing that I noticed this year that was not present last year was a lot of crowding at the start.  The race begins on a narrow city street, and there are only 3 bib colors.  Yellow and green bib runners are elite or very fast, and gray bib runners are the rest.  Gray bib runners are the rest.

Did you hear me?

Gray bib runners.  The rest.  13,000.

At the start, it was impossible to get any further to the back of the gray bib group.  Even if there were 3,000 yellow and green bibs, that still means that I needed to weave and elbow my way through 10,000 gray bibs in order to get to the back of the pack where I rightfully belonged.  When I saw that my sister and I had the same bib color, I knew that this was going to be a problem.

She was apparently blessed with all of the fast-twitch muscles that my parents were capable of cultivating.

She just looks fast, right? =)

I tried my best to stay to the right so that everyone else could pass me, but I noticed that runners were passing me on the right, running into the grass.  One girl passed me on the right by running through a hazardous ditch.  I felt bad that she had to do that, but by all ‘rules of the road’, I was supposed to be out of her way.  When I looked around me, I realized that the problem was that other participants who were slogging, wogging, or just plain walking, were littered throughout the road.  People walking directly down the middle of the street!

Why do people do that?  Just not educated about running etiquette?  In any case, I feel that some of this could have been avoided with more bib colors, or even a wave-type start.  Although I don’t really have to worry about passing many people who are actually running (I’m lucky if I can pass walkers), My Sista had a lot of issues with slowbies being completely in the way taking up the whole road.

But guess what?  I didn’t really care about any of this when I was running!  I had so much fun.  The course is very hard with all of the hills, but I quickly came to the realization that I was going to walk if I felt like it, and I’d finish when I finished.  I was pretty impressed with myself for having done this race at all, considering that my longest run since March was 6 miles, which I did 5 days before the race.  Prior to that, I had barely ran at all.

Booyah.

I ran pretty much right up until the end (with a few walk breaks here and there), and then I did the Galloway 1:1 method for about the last 1.5-2 miles.  I figured that at least if I was going to need to walk, I should keep track of how long I was walking, and keep it to a system.

Yay, we did it!

After the race, I felt great.  I chugged some water, and we went out to breakfast.  Much like any other day that I sweat profusely and exert myself, I started to get a headache.  In the past, these headaches have left me completely out of commission for an entire day.  I decided that rather than lay down and rest when I got home, I should just keep it movin.  I decided to take some quiet time for myself and enjoy my hometown.

My parents live about 5 minutes away from this:

It’s my quiet place.

One of my favorite places to be.

Just me and my camera, watching the boats pass by.  On the way back to my car, I bought the most enormous waffle cone filled with blackberry frozen yogurt and rainbow sprinkles.  I think I may have started a new post-race ritual.

My post-race trip was so relaxing, and I didn’t get a headache!  In fact, I felt great all day on Sunday.  When I woke up yesterday morning, my hips were a little sore, but nothing major.  Today, I still feel great.

I’m convinced that it was that 2 hours of relaxation that I made the time for.

Have you relaxed lately?

p.s…stay tuned tomorrow for my post on Hollaback Health!

It’s race weekend…AGAIN!

Didn’t I just have a race like 4 minutes ago?

Yeah. I thought so.

I’m mildly nervous about running The Boilermaker 15K on Sunday because I only had the opportunity to do ONE long run after my triathlon. I’ve come to a conclusion about me, races and running: I am not forward-thinking enough to focus on more than one race at a time. If the necessary training period for two events happens to cross, I get all jacked up.

The longest run that I’ve done since March (the Disney Princess 1/2) is the 6 miles that I just ran on Tuesday. So, I have complete faith in myself that I’ll finish, but I make no guaranties about whether I’ll need a wheelchair to do so.

Since that run on Tuesday, my knees have been feeling like their old selves in the evenings (swelled, tight, uncomfortable).  This makes me nervous, but I’ve been relying on ice to relieve the discomfort.  Today they seem fine.

I think I’ll be OK.

I hope.

*****

In other news (and what is REALLY on my mind), I’m moving! Aren’t you so excited? Me too!

It’s not a major move in terms of location or reason for moving, but to me it’s UBER exciting. Back in January 2007, I bought my very own 2 bedroom condo in a location that I love. It’s a 10 minute walk to a beautiful lake, 3 minutes to a bagel shop, and excuse me, but I can WALK to the MALL. Yes. Oh yes.

The other draw for me is the fact that the entire city is connected by paved paths.  It is possible to get to virtually anywhere within the city just by following paths and sidewalks.  I love the fact that I can always safely run and walk without having to worry about cars.

Before I moved into the condo, I completely renovated it with new stainless steel appliances, marble floors, crown molding, built-in bookshelves, surround sound. Seriously, this was like “pimp my crib” (well…the single, poor-person-on-a-budget version anyway). I really loved my condo, and I was proud and happy to have a place that I could call my own.

Then, in March, at the most unexpected time ever, I met the love of my life.

After a little over a year had passed, we knew that we needed to make a change.  Armed with the knowledge that My Gazelle and I would “someday” get married, and also the fact that we had collective credit card debt to the tune of $30,000, we decided to combine our lives into one of our condos. As it were, my condo was more marketable and would fetch more rent than his, so we have lived in his 1 bedroom condo for the past 2 years. My condo stayed leased out as a fully-furnished corporate rental, and I have had 3 tenants in the past 2 years.

**Sidebar: corporate rental is THE way to go if you can furnish the joint yourself. From my experience, the tenants have been solid, reliable, and mature.

I had to rent a storage unit for 2 years in order to contain all of the wonderful things that I wasn’t able to bring to My Gazelle’s condo.  They just wouldn’t fit within our 675 square feet.  My book and cookbook collection, scrapbooking supplies, beautiful decorations and framed art.  These are all things that I’ve missed for the past 2 years, but I knew that they were just things, and I would eventually be reunited with them.  In addition to missing my things (and probably more-so), I’ve missed having a space of my own to be creative.

At noon today, I’m meeting my soon-to-be former tenants so that we can do their move out inspection.

At 12:16, I’m going to begin moving in my art, scrapbooking supplies and cookbook collection.

Well, not really…but if I didn’t already have a prior engagement, you can trust that I would.

Oh, marble floors that are never clean enough!  I love you, but I hate you.

Oh, kitchen without enough counter space!  I have missed you so much…and we’ll get you some more counter space soon enough.

Oh, sunroom!  You look completely different now, with no crazy internal sliding door and new blinds!  I can’t wait to sit in you and relax.

As an added bonus, I also had all of the windows and that huge sliding door on the sunroom replaced in late February.  I am very anxious to move back in so that I can enjoy the space as it should be enjoyed.  I feel like I never really had a chance to enjoy and appreciate what I had because I was all up in “New Loveville”.  This time, I will have at least 3 years to devote to making this place our own (thankfully with no more credit card debt).  It’s funny how things come full circle.

And I will have a craft area.  Even if I have to share it with My Gazelle’s workout equipment.  It’s OK.  I”ll make that sacrifice for love.

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