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.

The Lincoln Half Marathon

The morning of Sunday, May 5th, 2008 could not have been more beautiful. It was 40 degrees and sunny, not a hint of a breeze when the race started at 7:00 am. The wind picked up and by 9 there was a pretty cool breeze but it was perfect.

I met up with my PT school friend Stacia and gave her brother (our Sherpa) our gear and headed off to the starting line. The cannon went off and it took us about 3 1/2 minutes to get across the line. (There were about 5400 racers for the half and full marathon combined.) We headed out and ran a slow first two miles to get warmed up and then fell into a comfortable natural, very conversational pace. We chatted for about 10 miles and at mile 11 got a lot quieter. We had planned to run easy, maybe 9:30 miles.

Stats:
Time: 1:56:45
Pace: 8:55
Overall Place: 1430
Place in Gender: 550 of 2540
Division F2529 Place: 141 of 540
10K Split: 56:03

Splits:
Mile 1 - 9:22
2 - 10:18
3 - 9:00
4 - 8:48
5 - 8:58
6 - 8:46
7 - 9:18
8 - 8:50
9 - 8:38
10 - 8:46
11 - 9:10
12 - 9:10
13 - 7:09

These splits are from my iPod so they may not be completely accurate (and NO I didn't have any earphones, I just took the ipod and the sensor so I could measure my splits).
The first mile was a little faster I think because I turned it on before we got out of the chute so I wouldn't have to mess with it. Anywho, gotta love #13! 7:09. I rock. =-)

My mom and dad were out cheering us on at about mile 6 or so. My dad took this pic of us on the way by.



So, all in all my first official half marathon went awesome. I felt great endurance-wise, definitely could have kept running or run faster. Had some pain in my right Achilles by about mile 5, pain in my left ITB by about mile 11.5 and a really sore low back the next day. No idea why.

This may be where most people's days ended but not us triathletes. I had a long bike ride to go on. Stacia and I and a few others went and had lunch at a local bagel shop. It amused me that they were ordering bagels with light cream cheese. Sign me up for a whole wheat bagel with egg, cheese, and bacon! I actually drooled on my plate when I went to take my first bite! I laughed out loud at myself but not for long, I was trying to get that sandwich in as fast as I could! I drove back to Omaha and relaxed for an hour or so and then got on my baby blue TT bike and headed out. I took a bottle of Gatorade in my bottle cage and a Camelbak of water and a Snickers Marathon bar. My plan was to eat 1/4 of a bar every 30 minutes and drink Gatorade every 20 minutes with water throughout. I didn't take into account the wind. It was about 17 mph from the WSW which made it a cross wind for a good portion of the ride and a head or tail wind for a little chunk. I ended up riding for 2 hrs and 45 or so minutes for about 45 miles. Now for those of you who are math challenged, that means that I didn't have enough Gatorade or bar for the last 40 minutes or so. I was tired when I left and I was really, really tired by the time I got home. I would extend my leg on the pedal, flex my quad and it would fatigue immediately. Pretty awesome.

The funniest part about this whole day...
I decided to take an ice bath when I got home because my Achilles tendon was even more sore when I got off my bike. No kidding, I DROVE the block and a half to the gas station to get the bag of ice because I wasn't sure I would be able to get it home. Sunburned where I missed the sunscreen on my thighs and forearms, sore joints, some little blisters, and a huge smile! What a GREAT Sunday.