Brick's Busy Day

We take a break from our regularly scheduled triathlon posts to hear from another very naughty family member who would like to share their story.

Man, it's 5:45 am?! I'm not ready to get up. Geez mom, go back to bed. Come back in an hour. Wait, wait, wait. I changed my mind. I'm up and I have to potty NOW. Let me go up the stairs first. Door, door, door, bell, ring the bell, outside, brrrrrr, phew, that's better.

I got up today, just like any other day. I had major bed head all over my body and I didn't care. I looked gooooood. I went outside in the cold, did my business and headed upstairs to crawl into bed and rub my face against my dad's back. Back to sleep for at least another hour or so. My stupid sister stayed downstairs on the couch. Good more room for me. I love her but I like to have my people all to myself.

Up at the usual time, breakfast as usual. Same old, same old... dog food. Mmmmmmm.

Back outside in the cold and then back up to the bed while my dad gets ready for work. So high maintenance. All I have to do is jump in the car, he has to shave, and shower, and put on a bunch of clothes, and find his keys, and find his shoes, and find his wallet, and pack up his bag, and GEEZ, is it time yet!?

Off to work. This is awesome. We go to work with dad some days. He has this great office with a Foosball table and sometimes if I stand under there long enough I find this little red shiny thing on the floor. Dad calls it a laser. I don't care what it is called, I think it will taste like bacon, if I can ever catch it. It only comes out to play when my human is around and it moves quick! I just can't seem to catch it. It doesn't come out every day but sometimes when I am lucky I see it. And there is this new thing they keep talking about. I think they call it a Wii? Well, my dad has been working on it for lots of days. He stands there and swings an imaginary bat. I'm a little annoyed there is no ball. And today he was sweating while he was hitting nothing in the air. He called it "boxing". And they think I am a dope. Geez. Anywho, there is this little white glove thing that swirls around on the wall. I think it may be related to the red flashy thing that keeps showing up when I hide under the Foosball table. I chase it and chase it. My people would be so proud if I could show them what I caught. One of these days that little white hand will be mine.

Then it is time to go home. My sister and I get really excited because, guess what!? At the top of the stairs at work, there is a rabbit! Yeah, a really fast, smells good rabbit with a fluffy white tail and a little pink nose. My sister always shoves her head under all the bushes looking for it but I am much more patient. I always see it and point. My silly people never do their part though. I find the animals and then they let them run off. Really!? Shoot it or something!

Today, we rode home in the back of the Neon. I love to watch the world go by. We got home and my dad opened the door to get us. We always wait like we should until he says we can get out. Today, when we headed up to the house, dad and I realized at the same time that he didn't have a hold of Kona's leash! He lunged for her right as I made a break for it. And we were off! Freedom! My sister and I have had this planned for ages. Today just happened to be our lucky day. We ran and ran and ran. He chased us on foot for a bit. That was a really fun game. Then he was gone. I was headed for my favorite thing ever. MUD! Lots of mud at the construction site about 2/3 of a mile down the road. I played for quite a bit and then I heard my dad call for me. I was so happy to see him. I ran over and jumped into the car. We drove for a bit and then my sister, Koni, jumped out of the field. He called and she bounced over to see him. Man, he was glad to see us but I could tell he was mad too! He left us outside when we got back. It wasn't cold but I like to be in with my people. He took us around and left us in our inside kennel when he left again. Damn. I was hoping for a couch.

Then guess what?! Both my mom and dad came home and I got sent straight to the bathtub. :( I hate the bathtub. My dad said it looked like I was wearing brown pants. What in the heck are pants? Apparently, I also had some giant stickers on my tummy. My dad had to trim them out of my fur. That is definitely gonna mess up my sweet bed head.

Anyway, I got my bath, had my dinner, and I am now currently working on a bone in the basement while I dictate this story to my mom. The funniest part is... shhhhh, don't tell but my sister is going to get put in the shower with her tonight. Ahahaha. She's gonna hate that. Oh well. We both think it was TOTALLY worth it. All in a day's work. And now, I can't keep my eyes open and am going to crash. Good night.

UGH!

Is there anything more incredibly boring than riding on the trainer!? Oh my gosh. I'm gonna go with NO!

A week in review...

What a great week! It snowed three times!

Last Saturday was so nice I went trail running in shorts! 58 plus degrees.

Sunday was really really cold with no snow. About a 65 degree drop overnight.

Monday was really cold too. So cold that when I was walking the 5 blocks to my car from the hospital in the dark at about 6:30 at night, some lady slowed way way down in the middle of a fairly busy street to ask if I needed a ride. LOL. Only in Nebraska would a complete stranger ask if I could use a ride. I guess either that says I look like a trust worthy soul or really gullible. I politely refused and finished the walk. It was cold but I was bundled up and it wasn't that far. Monday night we went to the wall to boulder. I was trying to finish off a problem that I had pieced together the time before and was successful until I jumped off the wall and got my right arm hung up in a rope (that I obviously wasn't using). Yeah. Ow. Sweet rope burn. Now, the question is, do you put on deodorant with an owie that close to your arm pit and risk the burn or do you make all others in your immediate space suffer? I chose to go with the deodorant.

Tuesday it snowed all morning. It was slushy and slick and awesome. After work, Kona and I bundled up and headed out for a run. As we were crossing a really busy street with the light, I was watching a truck slide down the hill towards us with all four wheels locked up. He was sliding and Kona and I were side stepping on packed down slick snow in the street trying to avoid an accident. He was going really slow, which was good cause I couldn't move very fast. This is how I felt when he finally came to a stop...


a slight exaggeration but you get it.

Wednesday was a quick run in the morning and then a crazy day at work.

Thursday another trail run with Kona in the snow. Much less efficient with no traction but still fun. Then Thursday night it started to sleet. And it just kept coming down. There was thunder and lightening and sleet and it was cold, so it just froze to whatever it landed on. And then it turned to snow. It was so awesome.

Friday morning I woke up to enough snow to ski on. I got up really early cause I was so excited and went to ski the golf course before work. It was decent skiing except I was working pretty hard to get my poles into the ground. There was nobody else out that early and it was beautiful. All of a sudden I heard a super loud noise that sounded like a gunshot way off to the North. I looked around but couldn't see anyone. I skied the other way and heard another one that seemed pretty far away. I considered going back to my car but it dawned on me that maybe it was the ice under foot. I heard a more quiet pop closer to my skis and it was just like the noise you hear on a frozen lake when the ice pops and cracks. It was a little disconcerting and I was using all my memories of the golf course to remember if there were any water hazards in the vicinity (there weren't).

Anywho, finished up skiing



and saw absolutely no one else, no prints or anything other than this little guy...



whose prints led to a big old tree stump. Hope it was warm in there.

This morning I ran with Bricko before work and we were both loving it as the snow was swirling. It didn't look windy when I was getting ready to go but that changed quickly. Brick just pranced through the snow with his eyes all squinty and had a great old time.

Cookie Day!

Last weekend was the 4th (give or take a couple years) annual Goossen Cookie Day. My aunt and uncle host and their kids, my mom and dad, and Mr KT and I all participate. The trend seems to be that all the gals make two or three kinds of cookies and all the gentlemen frost, usually there is football on but this year, cookie day just happened to land on the same day as the airing of the 2008 Ironman World Championships!

My aunt bought several pounds of butter, flour, and sugar, and lots of vanilla and then each person brings the "unusual" ingredients for their recipes. I made cornflake cookies (kinda like rice krispie bars but with cornflakes and green food coloring) then you put red hots on the top and they look like holly. My mom made lemon cornmeal bars and a traditional chocolate cut out cookie with chocolate frosting and peppermint. My aunt made almond paste bars (super yummy) and sugar cookies, and molasses cutouts. I am probably forgetting some but they were sooo good.

Mr KT on frosting duty.


Daddy KT


Sisters in the kitchen


Momma KT making chocolate cookies.


My aunt made me some very special "non-Christmas" M-Dot cookies in honor of the World Championships on NBC! I frosted them. Yum yum.






All in all, a very warm, fun, Saturday with family and lots of sugar and butter.

Running poem

Came across this poem on the facebook page of a friend. Just spoke to me today.

The Song of the Ungirt Runners

We swing ungirded hips,
And lightened are our eyes,
The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
We know not whom we trust
Nor whitherward we fare,
But we run because we must
Through the great wide air.

The waters of the seas
Are troubled as by storm.
The tempest strips the trees
And does not leave them warm.
Does the tearing tempest pause?
Do the tree-tops ask it why?
So we run without a cause
'Neath the big bare sky.

The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
But the storm the water whips
And the wave howls to the skies.
The winds arise and strike it
And scatter it like sand,
And we run because we like it
Through the broad bright land.

Charles Hamilton Sorley

This is pretty freaking cool

Anyone else <3 Keens? If you are a Keen wearer check out this sweet contest.

Pretty fun idea, huh?

Alright. Time for a run. Gonna go try and get about an hour in. It looks cold outside but rumor was it was gonna get a little warmer today. Sigh. Where is the snow?

Day 2-5

Catching up.

Day 2: Rest day due to working a trillion hours at the holiday party the rehab department has for our little patients at the hospital.

Day 3: Ran about 4 miles with Kona early, the dark/cold.
Swam 2150 yds in the afternoon. It was a crazy day and I totally crashed after I made dinner.

Day 4: Did a trail run with Bricko in the afternoon. It was beautiful out. Ran in tights, a t shirt with a fleece over it and a hat and gloves. Loved it. Needed it, bad.
Then climbed and had a pretty good day of it. Finished out three bouldering problems I had been working on. Makes me feel hard core.

Day 5: Walked the dogs over to the field and ran them around for a half an hour and walked them home. Would really like for Mr KT to be able to run again but his foot is still bugging him. Looking forward to healing that up. Seriously.

Tomorrow... longish run. Trainer ride? I have season one of Dexter to be watching. :)

Day 1:

Ran this morning with Koni-baby. Did about 4.5 miles or so? I was totally overdressed which is kinda nice for this time of year. Not a single solitary snowflake but I'm crossing my fingers for tonight.

Lifted tonight. Did squats, straight leg dead lifts, calf raises, lunges, and ab leg ups. 3 sets of each 12, 10, 8 reps with increasing weight except for calf raises - (25 bilateral, 10 each unilateral, repeat with no rest 4 times) and lunges (one lap of walking lunges around the double basketball courts). For those lunges it really is best if you can do it while lots of college guys are shooting hoops. Mainly because they look at you with a goofy look on their faces while they try and figure out why in the world someone might want to do something like that when they can be bouncing a brownish orange ball around and trying to throw it through a little red metal ring. I'm just saying, it's amusing to watch them puzzle over that.

So, one run down and one day of lifting. Woot woot.

Just a little accountability

This week has a plan. It looks like this...

Climbs - 2
Swims 1-2
Trainer rides - 2
Runs - 4
Weights or CrossFit - 1

I know, need to up the ante a bit if I am going to be doing any trail races in the next couple of months. At this point I am just doing what I can fit in and trying to be home to see my husband as well at some point. Ohhhh! I have an idea, maybe we just need another trainer so that we can ride our bikes inside together. I like it, I like it. :)

Just a little Sunday stroll

I've been trail running more this year than in years past and I really love it. Here is the thing about trails though... they are much more secluded. This is a good thing and a bad thing all at once. I have never minded being alone. I like the quiet. (Just ask Mr KT. He turns the volume up, I turn it down, he turns it up again.) I love being outside. I love to be moving and active and I adore my dogs. I mean really, how could trail running be better!?

Last Sunday (a week ago) Koni and I headed out to meet a small group to do a run at a local trail. We were headed for more of a Nature Center type place with lots of trails. Apparently it is a pretty sweet place to run but they don't allow dogs. We asked the guy who was so politely telling us to get lost where he would recommend and he aimed us down the road about a 1/2 mile or so. Hummel Park. I knew very little about this park. Just that it had been in the news a little in the last couple of years.

I texted my husband before I got out of the car so that he would knew where we would be. I tucked my cell phone in one pocket and my work pager in the other since I was on-call and we took off. It was a really fun run. About an hour and a half uphill and down dale. We ran 190 steps, twice. We carefully forged a few of our own trails and just generally had a fun, dirty time. One of the dogs even got really lucky and dug out a bloody deer leg from the underbrush. Mmmmm. The trails were a little muddy and completely buried in leaves. The leaves had a little snow on top of them making for some slippery spots. The weather was pretty much perfect for this time of year. There were a couple of spots during the run that were a little eerie and made me glad that I had others with me. There were two or three places where there were crosses or wreaths marking a specific spot in the trees.

Anyway, we finished up and I got back in my car. As I was pulling out I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and realized that Mr KT had never received my text message. I had no cell phone service back in there. When I got home, I looked up the park and its trails online. I felt like we ran all over and I was curious to see what it looked like from above. This are the tidbits of info/here say I found from the P.R.I.S.M. website among others.

Hummel Park, which is said to be one of the most haunted places in Omaha, NE and rumored to be an ancient Native American burial ground, was once the site of a fur trading post run by Jean Pierre Cabanne in 1823. It was later named in tribute to J.B. Hummel, a long time superintendent of the Omaha Parks and Recreation Department.

Notes:

The park has a very eerie feel to it. Spread over 200 acres, it is filled with steep hills and winding, dirt roads. An area at the eastern edge of the park is known as "Devil's Slide" because of the many suicides that have taken place there. Erosion has washed the area free from trees and resulted in steep cliffs and sharp drop-offs.

One of Hummel Park’s most mysterious characteristics is the trees that bow over the road entering the park. It is believed that many black men and women were hanged from these trees in the early 1900’s by local racist lynch mobs …and their souls still dangle from the trees. Park visitors claim to hear screams and cries coming from this park late at night.

Another of Hummel Park’s well known mysteries is the “Morphing Stairs,” a long, stone staircase located at the top of the park. These stairs are said to “morph” because nobody knows the exact number of stairs in the staircase. Each time a person counts the number going up or down, a different number is counted on the return trip.
(Editors note: they say 188, we counted 190. Close enough.)

The “Morphing Stairs” lead down a large hill into a valley containing a decrepit pit area with a deteriorating shelter house. Spray-painted markings in this area, such as inverted pentagrams and swastikas, along with the presence of dead animal carcasses, indicate that Hummel Park is a place where occult rituals and devil worship have taken place.

In addition to these satanic rituals, numerous murders have been committed in the park. One of these murders involved an Omaha prostitute named Laura LaPointe, who, in 1983, was sexually assaulted and then robbed of $25 by four other prostitutes. She was beaten to death with a 6 foot tree limb and a softball bat, and later discovered in a roadside ditch located in a heavily-wooded area of the park.

The screams and cries heard by park visitors, coupled with local ghost hunters’ claims of unexplained electro-magnetic readings and sightings of various ghostly apparitions, indicate a high level of paranormal activity at Hummel Park.

Recent Hummel Park Murders:

Twelve-year-old Amber Marie Harris disappeared on November 29, 2005. She was last seen on a video tape from her school bus getting off the bus at 5:41 p.m approximately four blocks from her house. On February 14, 2006 Amber's backpack was found about a mile and a half from where Amber was last seen. On May 11, 2006, human remains were found in a shallow grave in Hummel Park. On May 19, 2006, the skeletal remains were identified as Amber's. Omaha Police did not say whether Amber Harris was killed in the park or elsewhere, and they have still not found a suspect.


Christopher Masters and his accomplice, Jeremy Herman, murdered Jeremy Drake in the Fall of 1992. The official story is that they had a fight over a pair of stereo speakers, that is when Masters and Herman kidnapped Drake. Later Masters shot and killed Drake. Herman said he just wanted to scare Drake. Drake's body was found in Hummel Park. Drake was 15-years-old. Both Herman and Masters were sentenced to life in prison without parole.


To be honest, running there with a group and our dogs, during the day is probably just fine. Stories about burial grounds and spirits don't bother me. It's the alive people who are scary. Due to the area and the crap that goes on there, I can guarantee we won't be going back (don't worry mom). It was a little eerie, it was a bit disconcerting to see the crosses in the middle of the woods but anywhere we trail run or road run could have potential mishaps. I guess my take is that if it feels wrong, get out but don't let fear keep you from doing the things that you love. Be vigilant, be smart but enjoy life. (And maybe always take a friend!)

Seriously?!!?

Not a single flurry!? Ugh. I want to get my skis out.

Ok, I'll settle for the beautiful weather we've had and make due with trail runs and mountain bike rides.

Fine.

I love this time of year.

It is the off season. That's the part I don't love. I have had a hard time recovering from the marathon. I'm not sure how long that is supposed to take but I needed three full weeks. My foot stopped hurting last Monday. I gave it all day Monday and part of Tuesday and then decided to try a trail run. It went freaking great.

No.pain.anywhere.

Whoo-hoo!

So, I ran a shorty run on Thursday morning and did another trail run today. How wonderful. Maybe I will stop being so grumpy now!

I also did a mountain bike ride this last week and might sneak another one in tomorrow. Yeah, are you all seeing a trend?! I am leaning towards a little more of that stuff. What if I think I might want to do an Xterra? Mr KT may frown upon that due to the inconvenient locations. (Note to Mr KT: don't worry, I already have all the gear I would need, mostly.)

But the part I do love...
there were flurries in the air this morning and then it was coldish and sunny this afternoon. I am bundled in my favorite fleece and jeans with a blanket and have a dog sitting close to me. We've had the fireplace going, I had a steamy bubble bath with candles and a glass of wine, I made a pot of soup and blueberry muffins for dinner and I am running pain free. Does it get any better?!

(Editors note: Um, enough snow to get out the XC skis would be awesome but I am not gonna push my luck.)

Oh, and it is time to start planning the next season. :)

Phew

I swam for the first time in 6 weeks.

I didn't drown.

Marathon Virgin No Longer - Race Day

Sunday morning was about 40 deg. We had some issues getting to the race and ended up taking a cab and then walking about a mile and a half to the starting line. It was freezing. We hit the porta potties and then lined up in our respective chutes and shivered as the gun went off. I seriously don't think that my teeth stopped chattering until mile 3.

It is rather hard for me to remember the details. I was focusing on each mile marker and apparently didn't see much else going on around me. Mr KT asked me after the race about a few things along the course (like a golf course and say, the Washington Monument) but I really didn't know what he was even talking about. Um, let's just pretend I was in the zone.

We ran up and down a few little hills at the beginning and then through a really cool tree lined street. That might have been one of the best parts. It was cold still and the sun was just started to come up over the trees. As the runners ahead of you crested the hill, the sun would hit them and you could see the steam rise up of of them. Apparently there were 30,000 runners and so it was still wall to wall people at that point. It really was cool.

And then all of a sudden it was mile marker 13. Wow, I had a sore Achilles tendon and a mildly sore ITB but felt really pretty good. I wasn't tired, I was never out of breath, I felt like I could just keep on running. Good thing, cause I was only halfway done. So, onward.

I was drinking the nasty blue Powerade and water handed out at each stop. Trying to get in a full cup of sports drink and as much water as I could manage without walking. It was going frighteningly well. No upset or sloshy stomach. Really was feeling pretty good. The Marines at each aid station were great. They yelled encouragement and did everything they could to make it a good run for the athletes.

One thing that kept me going when I really started to feel yucky was to start counting the pairs of compression socks around me. Every time I would scan the runners in the vicinity, I would be surprised that I could only see 1 or two pairs. I would then think about how ridiculous it is to actually wear them while running and by the time I got through that I would have started to feel better again and would resume normal thought processes for running.

We ran and ran and ran. We went through downtown Georgetown which was really cool. By mile 22 or so I was starting to feel it. Not so much cardiovascularly but more musculoskeletally. My legs were just plain tired. My muscles were fatigued and the insertions were aching. The splits that I had been watching were starting to slow. I started walking aid stations to get more fluids but found that walking hurt almost as much as running at that point. I ended up walking just a bit but not much.

I ran up the last little hill and crossed the finish line with a trillion other people. I was handed my weird blanket thingy and was corraled into a chute to get my medal. Then I was sent along to get my picture taken in front of another monument. After that, I made my way to the Running Strong tent where I was supposed to meet Mr KT. He finished in 3:40 but he wasn't there. I waited for quite a while and he never came. I have to admit that I started to get nervous. I kept thinking that something must have happened to him. That he was in a med tent somewhere or his sore (probably fractured) foot had slowed him to a walk and he was dragging himself in. Come to find out, that was dumb because he was a rock star! I should have known. He had gone to pick up his bag and then got a little lost on the way back to the designated meeting area. He finally showed up and we just sat and rested in the sunshine for awhile.

The funniest part of the whole thing came afterwards. The line to get on the Metro was about 3 1/2 blocks long. Even if we eventually got on, we would have to wait for the shuttle to take us to the hotel. All of the streets were closed off so there were no cabs anywhere close. We decided to just walk the 2.5-3 miles back to our hotel. Wow. That was a long freaking walk. Ouch.

We gimped into our hotel and up to our room. P showered while I called and assured my mom I was still alive. Then I filled up one of the room trashcans with ice from the ice machine and filled up the tub with ice and water. Ice bath baby! Brrr. We then rested for a bit before trying to go find some dinner.

One thing I have to say is that the king sized bed was wonderful that night. We were both hurting and uncomfortable and being able to both stretch out was a good thing. The other thing that was pretty not awesome was the walking in the airport and the sitting on the planes themselves. Yikes. Also, my left peroneus brevis tendon was super sore when it attaches to the outside of my foot. I have taken a week and a half off running and it is starting to feel much better. P is still having foot pain but it seems to be better than it was.

On that note.


My times are as follows...
5K 0:30:14
10K 0:58:54
15K 1:26:47
20K 1:54:16
Half 2:00:25
25K 2:22:20
30K 2:52:29
35K 3:25:06
40K 4:00:06
Clock Time 4:19:36
Chip Time 4:15:18

Overall Place: 6025/18225
Sex Place: 1610/7141
Division Place: 406/1597

Not bad for my first time. :)

1964 Olympic 10,000m

Marathon Virgin No Longer - Pre Race

(The video above was supposed to go in this post but I got an error message every time I tried to put them together so separate they stayed. You have to watch it with the sound. It really is one of my favorite commentaries of all time. About 2 minutes and 15 seconds.)


The Marine Corps Marathon is officially and successfully over. We both had a decent run and although neither one of us is interested in another marathon anytime soon it was a good experience.

Mr KT was running for Team Running Strong. On Saturday we attended a luncheon event for their team where we got to hear Billy Mills speak.



This is part of the Wikipedia entry for Billy Mills.

Biography

William Mervin Mills ("Billy") was born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, a Native American (Oglala Lakota (Sioux)), and was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was orphaned at the age of 12. Mills took up running while attending the Haskell Institute, which is now known as Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. Both a boxer and a runner in his youth, Mills gave up boxing to focus on running.

He attended the University of Kansas on an athletic scholarship. He was named a NCAA All-America cross country runner three times and in 1960 he won the individual title in the Big Eight cross country championship. The University of Kansas track team won the 1959 and 1960 outdoor national championships while Mills was on the team. After graduating with a degree in physical education, Mills entered the United States Marine Corps. He was a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserves when he competed in the 1964 Olympics.

Billy Mills qualified for the 1964 Summer Olympics on the U.S. Track and Field Team in the 10,000 m and the marathon.

The favorite in 1964 was Ron Clarke of Australia who held the world record. The runners expected to challenge him were defending champion Pyotr Bolotnikov of the Soviet Union, and Murray Halberg of New Zealand, who had won the 5000 m in 1960.

Mills was a virtual unknown. He had finished second in the U.S. Olympic trials. His time in the preliminaries was a full minute slower than Clarke's.

Indeed, Clarke set the tone of the race. His tactic of surging every other lap appeared to be working. Halfway through the race only four runners were still with Clarke: Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia, Kokichi Tsuburaya of Japan, and Mills. Tsuburaya, the local favorite, lost contact first, then Wolde. With two laps to go only two runners were still with Clarke. On paper, it seemed to be Clarke's race. He had run a world record time of 28:15.6 while neither Gammoudi nor Mills had ever run under 29 minutes.

Mills and Clarke were running together with Gammoudi right behind as they entered the final lap. They were lapping other runners and, down the backstretch, Clarke was boxed in. He pushed Mills once, then again. Then Gammoudi pushed them both and surged into the lead as they rounded the final curve. Clarke recovered and began chasing Gammoudi while Mills appeared to be too far back to be in contention. Clarke failed to catch Gammoudi but Mills sprinted past them both. His winning time of 28:24.4 was almost 50 seconds faster than he had ever run before and set a new Olympic record for the event. No American had ever won the 10,000 m before Billy Mills did it.

An infrequently mentioned fact is both Clarke and Mills ran the marathon at the 1964 Olympics after the 10,000 m. Clarke finished in 9th place, Mills finished in 14th, in a respectable 2:22:55.4, approximately two-and-a-half minutes behind Clarke.

Anywho, (Blink, go ahead and tally one up for that) we listened to him speak, had lunch, took some pictures of the team and checked out the National Museum of the American Indian and then went back to the hotel to put our feet up. They also did a ritual before we all left that was pretty cool. A blessing of sorts on the runners.


The Running Strong Team


Mr KT getting blessed.


The place where the blessing and prayer took place.

Next post will be all race related I promise.

I'm in DC...

... and ready to run a marathon. We left Omaha about 10:15 this morning and flew to Detroit. We literally ran through the Detroit airport from gate C forty-something to gate A-68. I actually mean ran. Like with our bags strapped to us through hallways, on moving walk ways, dodging poor slow moving pedestrians, up and down escalators, etc. It was quite an adventure. Only the second time I have ever had to do something like that. We came skidding to a stop in front of our gate just in time and we weren't the last ones there!

We had a slightly bumpy flight into Washington D.C., picked up our giant bag and headed to the hotel. We figured out the metro system and headed back out into the city to pick up our packet. Public transit is pretty sweet. It takes forever but it is worth it as a visitor. We picked up our packets and our "mock neck" long sleeve t-shirts and grabbed a quick Subway sandwich. Check out the store that was in the gigantic mall where the Subway was...



Yeah, that totally says, "The Art of Shaving". If we hadn't both been tired, Mr KT would probably have wanted to scope it out. Sounds like something he would like, huh?

Now, back at the hotel and resting up for tomorrow. Just looking to get this party started.

Marathon

When I registered for this marathon I thought, "October 26th is forever away, no big deal." And now I am 4 days out from my first marathon ever. I am taking the taper as easy as can be as suggested by Blink. Last weekend I did a 40 mile bike ride on Sat in the 40 deg, windy weather and then a 13 mile run on Sun. It all went pretty well. I had some seriously sore quads but that has started to feel better today.

I am nervous as can be but anxious to get this trip started so that we can run this race!

I even have a pair of dorky compression socks sent from my buddy E (who has a new blog).

I am ready, let's go. Look out D.C. I am headed your way.

Seriously!

I know this isn't 140.6 miles or anything but if I freaking get hurt before this marathon I am going to be so annoyed.

Today was a long day at work. 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. It was a little bit weird with some crazy things at the hospital but all in all fairly good. Until 5:15 pm.

I was finishing with a patient and I turned around to get his crutches. I stepped over towards them with the schedule book in my hands and caught my foot on the Bosu ball on the floor. I tried to pick my foot up higher but my running shoe stuck to it and there was no hope. I dropped everything in my hands as I crashed towards the floor and the wall. I stopped suddenly as my left knee hit the carpeted concrete and my left shoulder crashed into the corner of the wall. The caregiver of my teenage patient stated that perhaps I was the one who needed some therapy. Only one other therapist witnessed the clumsy incident. I was extremely embarrassed but I was pretending that it hadn't happened as I quickly took inventory of myself to assess the damage. Seemed like just bruises to the shoulder and the knee. I'll keep tabs on it. In the meantime, more running and less falling down would be the best option I think.

And maybe a helmet. At all times.

Saturday

Saturday was a busy day for sure.

Ran a really laborious 11 mile run. (Anyone else seeing a trend here?)

Market to Market was going on. (I didn't run because it was too close to the marathon.) My buddy E ran and I sent him updates on the IM World Championship race all day.

Texas played Oklahoma and the last quarter was really good.

Nebraska played Texas Tech and managed to hang in there until the very end when Joey "Interception" Ganz gently placed the football in the other teams hands and told them, "it was very nice to play you but you deserve this, so here is the win." Awesome.

I watched/listened to the Hawaii IM on my computer for most of the whole day. I was making homemade Runzas for dinner (Mr KTs parents were joining us) and listening to the commentators when I heard a yell from the basement. I put them in the oven and ran down to check on the Huskers and when I came back upstairs Brick was looking a little guilty. Apparently he had taken it upon himself to eat 3/4 of a package of mozzarella cheese slices off the kitchen counter. Ugh. I didn't really care that the cheese was gone but I was (and still am) just a tiny bit worried about his GI tract. Guess we'll see. I have a feeling he will be just fine. That dog could eat anything it seems.

Then I finished watching bits and pieces of the race and went to bed.

No laundry, no grocery shopping. All in all, a good day.

Happy Birthday to my Dad

Happy B-day dad!
October 11th!



Mom and dad and baby KT


Dad and KT in Cheyenne


KT and dad "painting"


More recent photo - headed to Chris LeDoux show.

Grouchy face

I sucked on my run big time today. 16 miles quickly turned into 13 1/2. How can 6 minutes and 11 seconds of all-out the day before take it out of you like that. I had no idea.

Maybe next weekend.

P.S. For those of you interested in the crazy track workouts, wait until you see the one my friend E sent me! Tuesday is the big day... and yes, I will have my shoes on this time. :)

Just one more thing...

I keep meaning to post a picture of the newest addition to our house. No we are NOT having a baby. I am referring to Mr KT's 2 month old tattoo.



It is a wooden cross with a medicine wheel around it making it look a little Celtic. I think it turned out great. He said it peeled a couple of times but it was never really that uncomfortable. He asked me if I was going to go along when he got it done and I told him I would come take his picture. He told me that was so not cool and so I stayed home. LOL!

I would be willing to bet he's already thinking about a second one, but what do I know.

Yeah, that's right...

I ran The Omaha Mile this morning. It is a fast one mile race in downtown Omaha. Most of the course is downhill with a little tiny bump in the middle. You start at 19th and Capitol and run down Capitol St. You take a left on 10th street and run past the Qwest Center to the finish. It is fast and furious. A bunch of kids races to start with and then Master's Women, Master's Men, Open Women 39 and under, Open Men 39 and under, Elite Women, and then Elite Men. Dang those last two groups can freaking fly. Amazing. I believe that the winning elite male ran 3:57:something and the second place elite male was also under 4 minutes. Wow.

My time...

6:11:49

19 seconds under what I was hoping to run.
Good enough for 3rd place overall in the open women division and 2nd in my age group. As I was about at 2/3 of a mile I thought to myself, all those long runs were definitely not training you for this. But I have to admit that the track workouts probably helped.

Not bad. Not bad at all. Next year? I would love to go sub 6.

Owie

So... I learned that when you run 3 miles barefoot, your feet are sore the next day. Not sore, like the skin hurts, not sore like injured, but sore like somebody put spacers between all the bones in your forefoot and is slowly cranking them apart. Like maybe all those muscles and tendons and ligaments in there had to really work to hold that foot together last night without the help of a shoe. Like maybe every time the foot stepped down it spread apart more than it does in the uber-expensive, cushy, supportive running shoes normally found on that foot.

Corporate Cup 10K

So, last week was hit or miss for workouts. I spent Wed-Sat in Lincoln for a Child Passenger Safety Class (who knew there was so much to learn about car seats). I stayed with my parents and had a really nice time. My mom and dad are wonderful and as my mother-in-law would say, "home is where your mom is."

One note of kudos to my momma, she is now a published poet which is very, very cool.

Anywho, like I said, workouts were hit or miss. I got in a few runs and an ok swim and that left me to do my longest run to date on Sunday. I had registered for the Corporate Cup through work several weeks ago. This is a good sized race in downtown Omaha where it is fairly flat. Thousands of people run or walk the 10K or the 2 mile. It takes forever to get over the starting line. You get the idea.

I decided to incorporate the 10K into my long run. I got up early and got myself organized which was somewhat of a challenge this morning. I ran the 5-ish miles to the race through the ghetto. It was pretty quiet and a very decent "commute" with some consistent hills. I then checked in with my organization and headed to the starting line (or as close as I was going to get). You definitely see some very strange things at races this size. For instance, around mile 5 there was some guy sitting by himself on the corner playing his clarinet. Really, the clarinet? How bizarre. He was just rocking out by himself with his favorite woodwind. There were also a few lone cheerleaders and several of the Omaha Beef (?) players. Maybe some sort of indoor football team? I don't really even know.

Anywho, finished up the race, grabbed a bottle of water and half a nutrigrain bar and headed out to run home. I ran back a different route which ended up being a bit of a pain with the traffic lights and pulled into my driveway right on time. I grabbed some water and two little doggies and headed back out for the last 4 miles. I learned that you should not run miles 17-20 of your long run with two Brittanys with fresh legs. Ouch. Anywho, we got through it and then I sat in an ice bath for about 10 minutes. I love to cold soak and would recomend it to anyone.

I then did a track workout on Tuesday. The actual workout was 3x1 mile repeats. My feet and legs were too beat up for this but I did 1 mile warm up, and then 2x 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 yds on the football field barefoot. I then did all of that again and warmed down with 3/4 of a mile. My arches are pretty tired but it felt good to run like a kid again. Aw, smile.

Other than that, just gearing up for the Omaha 1 mile run on Saturday. Should be a good time.

And for my brother, who requested more pics of the babies, here is one of Kona cuddling with her puppy.

Dude, You Just Got Chicked

Two open water swims in three days? Is this some kind of strange parallel universe? Yeah, that's right, two. Unfortunately it is now September and so I am a little late due to triathlon season being, well, pretty much over. Anywho, I swam with two buddies on Monday (I love having a day off.) We went to a local "private" lake and swam for about 25 minutes. A was way faster than me, just like he is in the pool. E was just slightly slower but hung right in there. We swam, played a little frisbee and then had a little lunch. It was hot and beautiful and summer.

Wednesday, a gal that I have been long riding with called and wanted to open water swim at that same lake. Her brother lives there and she wanted to meet me after work. We met about 6:30 pm. It was a beautiful fall day, about 63 degrees. It had only been cooler for a day or so and the water was still warm. The air temp definitely wasn't but it really was no big deal. I have vowed never to complain about water temps after my 1.2 mile dip in Lake Michigan. Now that was chilly. Anywho, we got it and swam for 30 minutes straight. We swam a giant square. I have no idea how far we went but it felt awesome. The sun was starting to sink behind the trees, the water was fairly calm. Arms were cool out of the water but the water was not cold. As we swam out we came across 3 or 4 guys swimming as well. The funniest part about it was they were in full wetsuits. Now, there is nothing wrong with a full wetsuit but think about it... the only skin that had showing was their feet, hands, and faces. Both of us were in two piece swimsuits with very little covered relatively speaking. We were flying compared to them and their kayaker. I watched them stroke slowly by as Lisa and I flew past. Those boys totally got chicked. I love it.

So there I was, doing my longest run to date...

Last night (Friday) was my weekly long run as I ramp up for the Marine Corps Marathon. It was 16 miles and it took me 2 hours and 45 minutes. It was slow. I know it was. I took Brick out for the first 6 miles, a loop through the university and around two local city parks. It was warm, I had worked all day and it was nice to be out with Bricko who cracks me up when he runs.
He keeps his head up high watching for birds and squirrels and he doesn't really bend his back knees but circumducts his legs. I can almost here the phrase, doh da doh. He's so cute!


Anywho, we were just coming through Memorial Park running up Dodge Street getting ready to cross when about 15 guys painted completely head to toe in blue paint surrounded us. There was one guy in a mascot costume waving a flag that I couldn't read. The rest of the guys were shirtless, with boxers or running shorts on. All painted blue. It was Friday night about 6:00 and they were headed towards the University of Nebraska Omaha football field. I couldn't tell how old they were but they were screaming and yelling. They waited briefly at the light and then jumped out into traffic. P.S. Dodge Street is the main drag that divides Omaha into north and south and at 6 pm it is way busy, all 5 lanes. The light finally changed just in time and Brick and I ran around them as they were screwing around in the street. Then I heard, "dude, keep up with the dog, keep up with the dog". Great, now Brick was leading the way, with a blue nose, as he had wiped it against someones leg on the way by, followed by me attached to the other end of his leash, followed by 15 bright blue boys. They finally turned off after they couldn't keep up with Brick and I and we finished our six miles and I dropped him off at home. I found out later that they were Creighton Prep kids. It was the first game of the season. I had forgotten that UNO was their home field.

I picked up Kona and she and I were off after a couple of gulps of water and half a bag of fruit punch sport beans. She is a little trooper. I had only planned to take her for 6 or 8 miles and then finish it off alone but we were out on the trail and I decided to just finish. She did get a little tired but when she started to slow I would walk with her and then she was ready to go again. Kona and I ended up doing 10 miles. We ran out on the local, flat, paved, bike trail. Kona did great. We didn't have water with us but we stopped on the way home at a fountain and I lifted her up to drink. We finished just as the sun was dropping behind the horizon.

Brick and Kona had a little dinner while I walked to the gas station to get two bags of ice. I was sweaty with wild hair flying out of my visor, and pink cheeks. I paid for my ice and as I was headed back out the doors, some guy in his mid 40s was sitting in a baby blue Jeep Wrangler with the top off. You could tell that in his prime, girls had flocked to him and I had heard him tell one of the gas station attendants when I arrived that he was working on buying some land in Mexico so he could build a house and retire there. Yeah, right. Anyway, he saw me come out and said, "where's the party?"
"No party," I replied.
"What's with the ice then?" he said. (What a dork.)
"I'm going to sit in it."
He asked me what I was training for, I told him some endurance events coming up. He said, "I did a half marathon once."
Great. Good to know. He asked if I had done that and I said yes, he asked if I had done a full marathon and I said, "that's the plan for October". He asked what other races I had done. (Trying WAY too hard.) I told him I liked triathlon as I was backing away. As I turned around, I heard him whistle under his breath and say to the gas station lady, "now that's bad ass." I just had to smile. People are so easily impressed. If he knew how much harder it is to get into the ice bath than go for the run, or how much my feet and legs were aching, or how anyone could do it if they just start with walking around the block... well you get the point.

I got home, poured the ice in the tub. Climbed in and iced down. I really, really love that despite those first 2 agonizing minutes before things go numb. Kona managed to fall in, which was a little on the cold side when the water splashed up.




And then we all ate and rested.

Black Squirrel Race Report

Hm, well that was interesting.

I rode with some friends out to the race in good old Council Bluffs, Iowa. Yuck.

Checked in and got body marked by some high school girl with a very pointy Sharpie marker. I had to check to make sure she didn't draw blood. I picked up my timing chip which was gigantic and put it on with the sensor on the inside as is customary.

Got transition organized and walked down to lake for the pre-race meeting. And then the race started, literally. I mean one minute we were standing at the water's edge and the next minute we were all rushing in, ready or not. There was no gun, no "ready, set, go", nothing. All of a sudden, we were just going. So strange.

Swim:
Distance: 1000 yds
Time: 13:06
Pace: 1:19/100 yds
Swim place:38

Ok, so... The swim was short. I am sure of it. I was not the only one who thought so. I clocked myself coming out of the water in 12:26 but I don't know actually how short the course was so not sure of my actual pace. I just know that it wasn't 1:19. It was a mass start and getting all thrown in to the dudes who are willing to club anyone in their way, over the head, is not as great as when we start in waves.

T1: 2:03

There was a decent distance run from the water to the transition area. I'm not sure where the mat was and to be honest, I am not sure what the point of the mats was because as we went over them they asked our numbers and some guy punched them into a box. Really, welcome to Council Bluffs.

And yeah, my T1 time is a little long. Get this, I totally got stuck in my jersey. I usually pull it on with nothing in the pockets and then stuff my stuff in. Today I had everything in the pockets and was trying to pull it over my head and got it all wrapped up on my wet shoulders. Suck. I struggled with it for WAY, way too long. Annoying. Oh well. I also had a truck load of sand in my cycling shoes when I left T1. I knew that wouldn't be good eventually but decided to suck it up.

Bike:
Distance: 21 miles
Time: 1:05:34
Pace: 16.7
Place 85:

The bike course was not awesome. Bike paths, bumps, railroad tracks, not well marked, blind turns, tight turns, blind underpasses, no room for passing, etc. At one point I ended up with a group of riders who missed the trail head turn. We did at least .6 miles before we turned around which lost us about 4 minutes. Damn. The other thing that was frustrating was the amount of drafting going on. There really wasn't room to pass, nor was it safe, on the bike path. In addition, this was not a USAT sanctioned race so there were no officials and the course was not closed. People were in small groups of two or three and big packs. It's just frustrating when you know the advantage they are getting.

Although the avg speed seems a bit low. I was ok with my ride. I kept my speed above 20 mph except on the technical stuff where I slowed down. There were bandaged up athletes everywhere at the finish line. All of them were male (sorry guys) who had just been too aggressive on this particular course. I like to go fast as much as anyone but there is a time and a place and if you come around a corner and take out a mom with a jogging stroller you've crossed the line.

Nutrition on the bike: 14 oz of Gatorade. Period. With all the twists and turns and bike handling I was afraid to pull anything out of my pockets. Hmmm, what kind of a run will that make for? Read on.

T2: 1:03

In and out. My feet were still covered in sand. Sock, sock, shoe, shoe, visor, go.

Run:
Distance: 10K
Time: 53:41
Pace:8:29
Place:64

So with all of these crazy variables; the no nutrition, the sandy feet, the crazy timing chips, etc. I still had one of the best runs that I have had in a race. I felt great. I picked up the pace to be about an 8:08 average. The course was a little long. It ended up being 6.5 miles instead of 6.2 so that helped the average out a bit. One of the track guys jumped in and ran my loop around the lake with me. He was out for his long run and ran his first loop with the really fast guys and then jumped in to do the second loop slow, with me. He didn't pace me but he definitely kept my mind on other things. He told me about his miserable IMOO race. Poor guy puked for 15 hours. It was nice to listen to him talk about stuff while I gasped for air.

Overall:
Clock Time 2:15:27
Overall Place 60 / 132
Gender Place 6 / 36
Division Place 4 / 13 (Girl from my division won overall.)




Lessons Learned:
* You don't really have to push very hard to create a mark on the skin with a Sharpie marker. If you forget this fact, it hurts.

* I can run faster than I think I can. It is mental for me.

* It is ok to reconfigure your race plan in your head if what you were going to do initially is dangerous. (aka; go as hard on the bike as possible)

* It makes me crazy when people race with iPods, draft, or do other equally uncool things during a race. Who cares if it is USAT sanctioned, do the right thing.

So, overall a pretty fun race. If they changed the bike course I would do it again. If the bike course stays the same, I will not. Too sketchy.

Not really blog info but...

So this may be slightly inappropriate but I just found this interesting...

10,500 Olympic athletes in Beijing.
100,000 condoms available.

In Athens in 2004, 130,000 condoms were provided and they ran out and had to order more.

They are no longer putting them in rooms, but instead are keeping them at the medical centers. Still in Sydney, I think, each athlete received 51 condoms when they got there. Holy, freaking, cow. That seems like a lot for two weeks.

Apparently all those really, really athletic, world class athletes are attracted to each other, go figure. No wonder you have to turn 16 that year in order to compete. (Just kidding, of course.)

Here are the Olympic ads. They really are hilarious but I wasn't so sure about posting them on my blog for those of you who may read at work. Check out the link if you can. It might make you smile.

Befuddled

Sometimes I forget that every one's life doesn't include words like "brick", "transition area", and *audible gasp*, "Ironman".

So there I was, sitting in the chair, getting my hair cut, like I do 2 or 3 times a year. My stylist, Tiffany, was working away. She is into bikes, both pedal and motor as is her husband. He used to race motocross until he wrecked pretty hard and was injured seriously enough to have to stop racing. Up until this year, they both have cycled quite a bit. We would always talk about which rides we had been doing and what the few-and-far-between up-coming events in Omaha were. Apparently, she has also been having some chronic pain issues and hasn't been riding. I guess people's lives and interests change. It's no big deal but it was so strange the way our conversation was so different from before. It went from comparing adventures to her telling me what a "go-getter" I am. Lame. Anywho, she asked what trips or races I had done this summer and I had casually told her about the HIM in Wisconsin. (Really, it's the only place I have gone.) She looked at me blankly.
"What's that?" she asked.
I looked back at her a little confused. "You know, a half Ironman."
"Is that a bike race?"
"Ummm, no.... it's half of an Ironman." I was confused. You know, Ironman? I couldn't even explain it, I was so bewildered that she didn't know what I was talking about. I even busted out the, "you know, the Hawaii Ironman?" Hahahahaha. Wow.
I did eventually explain that it was a triathlon and stumble through the distances.

I know that it is unreasonable to think that everybody knows all about triathlon but isn't Kona one of the biggest sporting events EVER? Well, maybe not, but you know what? I like the little imaginary world that I live in. If anyone cares to join me, I'd be happy to have ya, it's great here. Otherwise, see you on the flip side. :)

Apparently I don't share well with others

Well, I feel like after announcing my workout schedule last week, I should keep myself honest and post how it actually went.

But... I am not going to bore you with all the details. Basically, I got mostly back into the two-a-day groove. I also commuted to and from work on my mountain bike every single day. I ran a total of 28.11 miles (the goal was 29), and I rode 53 miles. I swam twice, and the good news is that I still have one more day left in the week. Rock on!

Now, I have a question for you all.

Does it bother you if someone else wears (and sweats profusely in) your helmet? I really want to know.

Let me lay it out there. Wednesday night, I came home from guitar practice and changed into my cycling gear to go ride. I pulled out my baby blue TT bike, tri shoes, etc. I looked for my helmet but it was nowhere to be found. I knew it was on my aero bars when I left because I had set my mountain bike helmet on top of it after work. Both of Mr KT's bikes were gone (a little strange) and I realized that he had my helmet, I was sure of it. Just to clarify, he has two of his own helmets. The road helmet was gone and the mountain bike helmet was hanging on its hook. Anywho, I proceeded to get madder and madder. I had decided to wear my mountain bike helmet when he pulled in on his road bike in my helmet. I asked why he was wearing mine, he said his was at work. I said, "why didn't you wear your other one", he said, "it was dusty and dirty". Boo. He said, "here, you can have it." I got annoyed and disgusted and more annoyed and actually, pretty mad for not a very good reason. I said no, he said yes and I finally took it and put it on and was totally grossed out to have it touching my face. He said he would go back out and ride with me and put on the "dusty, dirty" helmet. We had a nice ride out and then the last 1/4 of the ride I turned it on. I was pretty much over the helmet issue so it wasn't that I was still mad. (Although I still feel like that is comparable to sharing a toothbrush, GROSS, or wearing someone else's underwear really gross.) I have no idea how fast I averaged that last part. All I know is that I was working as hard as I could sustain. I was drooling all over my face and when we got to the end of the trail I gagged hard about 4 times trying not to puke. I coughed and spluttered 3 more times trying not to hurl in the street. I have never been that close to puking during a workout.

After we rode up the big hill, I pulled in behind Mr KT and he said, "so that is why everyone was looking at us". Apparently he thought my jersey was unzipped a bit too far. I was hot, I didn't even notice. However, when I went up to change clothes I realized I had 26 gnats smashed in my sports bra. OK, maybe it was a bit low. I was going to document this phenomenon photographically but decided against that since there was no way I could do it with the bra on and that may have changed the rating of my blog to at least PG. :)

Anywho, back to the original question...

Does it bother you if someone else wears, and sweats in, your helmet?

Cause it makes me crazy and apparently it makes me ride a lot faster.

It's Time for a Kick in the Pants

Ok, somebody give me a little shove. I really, really need to get going. It's been exactly two weeks since the HIM and I am really not motivated to get back in the training routine.

My new shoes helped briefly, until I actually ran in them. Hehe. My foot still hurt and it was still 94 degrees. I was supposed to do a 10-12 miler today and after 5 called it quits. I was shivery and thirsty and really, really hot. The humidity was 92% and the heat index was so high they were telling people to keep their pets indoors. Yeah, that's hot. I had to work this morning so I couldn't go for the long run right away. Well, looking back, I should have gotten up before the sun and run to my heart's content. I didn't, but I will next time. Anyway, by 10:15 am it was too broiling for me. I decided it wasn't safe and ran home and had lunch.

Last week I did 3 runs and 3 swims and that was it.

The week before that was a recovery week and I did 1 run, 1 bike, and 2 swims.

So, this week is a new week.

The plan is...

Monday - Run 6 miles am, Swim 3000 yds pm
Tuesday - Bike 1 hour am, Track workout
Wednesday - Bike 1 hr 20 min am, core pm
Thursday - Run 6 miles am, Swim pm
Friday - Run 3 miles am, Swim pm, lift UEs and core pm
Saturday - Rest (?)
Sunday - Long run (10 miles)

The other part of the plan includes some healthy, all natural eating habits. I never really fall off completely, I just become more careless. I seriously need to have someone really qualified look at this!

The weekends are filling up

I totally want to race. Benson asked me after the last post when the next race is and I will be racing an Olympic on either the 23rd or the 24th of August. I haven't decided which race to do. One would involve a little more planning and a longer drive and a way better race the other is right in my backyard but I have to be concerned with growing a third arm in the nasty lake that I would be swimming in. Yuck. It may be worth it though just so as not to have to pack up the dogs and spend the whole weekend away. (That first one I described is the race that I managed to throw Mr KTs keys away at last year, as some of you may recall.)

So this weekend I am on call at the hospital. (Already been in twice this morning and it is only noon.)

Next weekend I spend all day Saturday at a continuing education course on orthotics and bracing and Sunday I am headed to Lincoln to see my momma.

The weekend of the 23rd and 24th I am racing... somewhere.

I am on call again Labor Day weekend.

My cousin gets married in Iowa the first weekend in Sept.

I have a girls weekend planned the 2nd weekend in Sept with 3 of my PT school friends that I TOTALLY miss.

Sept 28th is the Omaha half marathon.

Etc, etc, etc.

Now, I just have to squeeze in my long runs around all that and we should be good. Yikes, the marathon is going to be here before I know it. Time to kick that into gear.

PS I fell out of love with my old running shoes and bought a pair of Asics Gel Kayanos today from my LRS. They have the same gel as the Nimbus, of which I had about 10 pairs of, and just a smidge more stability then the 2130s I was trying and don't like at all. I am looking forward to giving them a shot on my longish run this weekend. Don't worry I loop by my house so if I don't love them I can switch out. The only down side... they are purple.

The swim workout of the week...

400 warm up pks
10x50 (25 ez, climb out, 10 real push ups on the deck, dive in, sprint back) :15 sec RI
50 kick
5x100 IM (odds regular, evens reverse) :20 RI
50 kick
400 IM kick
200 warm down

Just 2100 measly yds with 100 push ups sandwiched in there.

Try it, you might like it. Just don't puke.

Spirit of Racine Half Iron Triathlon: Race Report- Part 2

We pick up at T2.

I came down the hill into T2, dismounted, ran in and swapped cycling shoes for socks and running shoes, helmet for visor, and grabbed my race number. Time to hit the run!

T2:
3:28

I ran out and headed up the first hill. The run course was a mostly flat two loop out and back. I took a couple of Enervit Tabs (electrolytes) out and was sucking on them. They worked great in training but were not awesome on race day. It was pretty well shaded and there were aid stations just frequently enough. I ran the first three or so miles at a 9:00 pace before my stomach started cramping up. I walked just long enough (1 minute and 30 sec) to calm it down and then picked back up into a run. Two miles later it happened again. I had purposefully slowed to a 9:30 pace but my stomach was mad. At mile 5, I pulled off to use the porta-potty. That seemed to help and I was off again. I was running 8 minutes walking 1-2 minutes to keep my stomach happy and I was only drinking water and taking ice at the aid stations. I started to feel much better at the turn around to head back out but it was still hard to turn around and run away from the finish line. As I switched to a 4 min run, 1 min walk, I started to realize that the only thing that was really tired were my quads. I also realized that they felt worse when I was walking. Hmmm, yeah, run more, i get it. There was some guy that attached himself on to me and just kept talking to me the entire second half of the run. It is fun to see people out on the course and chat briefly but every time I walked so did he and every time I picked back up to a run so did he. Ugh. Run your own race buddy, I wanted to tell him. I just kept a smile on my face and answered briefly his random questions and comments. "Guess what? I watched the new Batman movie last night" or "did you know..." Shhh, dude, just let me run. Anywho, came around the corner, through the Racine zoo which is not awesome because you just run along the back side of it. You can't see any animals, just smell them, and headed towards the finish line.

Run: 13.1 miles
2:26:42
11:12 min/mile average (SUCK)


Overall:
6:05:56
43/55 in age group (SUCK)
1062/1381 overall men and women, females and males were not split out in results

63 people - DNF
approximately 388 people - DNS. I am guessing due to weather.

I have to admit, I can't even remember finishing. I felt pretty darn good. I wasn't too hot, or too tired. I could have kept going for a bit longer and I was freaking hungry! I went over and put my finishers medal in my bag and headed over for food. The sweet little old lady in the food tent handed me a BBQ pork sandwich which I bit into before it even hit my plate. I told her how wonderful she was and moved down the line for a gigantic piece of watermelon, oatmeal cookies and chips. I sat in the shade and ate and then went down to the lake and knelt waist deep in the water to "ice down". It felt awesome! I gathered my belongings, took some time to enjoy the water, sand, and sun and headed up to my car. I am potentially in love with Lake Michigan. We don't have anything like that anywhere near here. Every body of water remotely close I can see all the way across. It was awesome. There were boats, and waves, and seagulls, and lots of water and sand. I wanna go back! There is something about the water that just pulls at my heart.






Nutrition:
Nutrition was a huge issue for me as I wondered if it would be. The race was more than an hour and a half late getting started which meant that at race start I had eaten 3 1/2 hours prior. In my real, non-triathlon life, that is almost time for another meal. Not a great way to start. After I got home I calculated it all out. The result was that not counting breakfast, I took in a grand total of 380 calories, including Gatorade and I burned 3970 calories on just the swim, bike, and run. Yeah, anyone see a glaring problem with that? I think that Infinit is going to be my next option to try. I just kick myself thinking how much faster I could be if I had that figured out. Hmmm. Yeah, look out cause if I pull it all together, I could definitely be dangerous. :) Just kidding.

Another random fact about nutrition, if you have half a package of red sport beans in your jersey pocket and you pour water over your head repeatedly during a run and they fall out, it is a mess. I am just saying. Yuck. I had red food coloring everywhere.

Random Comments: People say strange things. For some reason I was a magnet for that this weekend. Here are a small sampling.

1. In transition, waiting for fog to lift: The girl next to me said, "where are you from?"
I told her, "Nebraska."
She said, "oh, yeah? Are you doing IM Kentucky then?"
I though, "huh?" and must have given her a confused look.
She said, "uh, I don't know much about the South."
I paused before carefully telling her how Nebraska was about as middle of the U.S. as you could get.
She said, "hmmm, so are you doing Louisville?"
Hahahaha. Wow.

2. I had on a CamelBak and some guy rode by and told me it was all about "comfortability". Is that even a word?

3. On the way home, I stopped to get gas and the man working there reminded me of the gas station attendant from the Simpsons. I hadn't showered and still sort of had the remnants of my body markings on my arms and legs. He saw the 8 and the 4 and said, "84, is that your favorite number or something?"
Really. Yes, I get up every morning and whip out my permanent black marker so I can write my favorite number of the day on my arms. Oh, yeah, and while I am at it, I usually write my age on my leg too, just so that if someone asks, I don't have to do the math. Instead, I said, "eh, nah, just did a race this morning" and walked away shaking my head.

4. And the last one. During the run I ran by a 77 year old man who was just running along. I said to him, "Have you done many halves?"
To which he replied, "yeah, quite a few, did one last weekend."
Whoa, that is hard core. I said, "Are you freaking kidding me, that is awesome."
He said, "every race you do, you lose a few IQ points. I am beginning to be quite deficient."
I said, "how do you earn them back?"
He said, "you get really good dates."
Some guy running by me said, "you might want to run a little faster!"
HAHAHAHA! Awesome.

ALSO: A humongous thanks to Blink for letting me borrow his neoprene swim cap from IM CdA. Thanks, you saved me a major ice cream headache! It was perfect.

So there you have it. I know I left stuff out and I am sure that it will come to me later but that is most of it. Can't wait to do more.