Not What I Expected - KC Triathlon Race Report

Well, my day started off with a bang – literally.  I backed into my neighbor’s car.  Not the way you want to start your race day.

The race didn’t start until 7:30 am, but transition opened at 5am.  I like to get to the race early and be there as soon as transition opens, so I was leaving the house at 4:30 am to have time to pick  up Michelle and get to the race at 5am.  It was pitch black and my car was full, with my bike and Michelle’s bike, my tri bag, my wetsuit, etc.  My neighbor’s car was parked in the street right behind my driveway.  So as I’m backing out of the garage….bang.  I got out and looked at the damage.  I broke my tail light and had some scratches, nothing major.  Unfortunately I hit his car in the quarter panel, and it was completely dented in.  Crap.  Not wanting to disturb my neighbors at 4:30 am, I called Jim and asked him to let them know later in the day.  Definitely didn’t do anything to help calm the nerves.

I try to shake it off and head over to pick up Michelle.  My stomach is already in knots.  This is a big race.  It’s a 5150 Qualifier race and brings out a slew of competitive athletes including 10 pros.  These people mean business.  I am Slowly Tri-ing – I am not in the same league as these people.  I am so nervous.  It’s a 1 mile swim.  I have never swam that far in a race before.  Seeing the buoys the day before I panicked.  It is soooo long.  I was afraid my shoulder would not hold out.  I had told myself over and over, just go slow and get the swim done, but I wasn’t sure if it could be done.

As we pull up to the race my stomach is flipping and flopping.  I haven’t been this nervous before a race since my first triathlon.  I want these nerves to go away.  I set up my transition area and try to focus.  Talking to myself.  Remember this is not a race.  It’s a training event.  Just get through it and finish.    Slowly my friends start showing  up.  It helps calm the nerves to hang out and chat some.

My transition area all set up

We get our timing chips and head to the bathroom.  While in the porta potty I hear someone yelling beside me in the next toilet over “F..k, F, F, You’ve Got this, You’ve Got this, You’ve Got this!!”  Apparently someone was giving themselves a little pep talk in the john.  It was hilarious and makes me realize I’m certainly not the only one who is nervous.

Before I know it the announcer is saying, “Transition closes in 10 minutes!”  Holy!!  It’s almost time.  Well sort of.  Transition closes at 7:00 and my swim wave doesn’t start until 8:01, but it’s almost time to get out of transition anyway.  I had waited til the last minute to put on my wetsuit, not wanting to stand around in it too long since it’s so hot.  So I hastily go to put it on.  I bend over to pull up the legs and ouch…..there goes my back.  I knew it the instant it happened.  I threw out my back.  I have struggled with my back for the last 6 years, but have been relatively healthy for quite some time now.  CRAP.  It’s not my day.  First the car, then my back.  I had already taken an aleve to help combat the inflammation in my shoulder.  Now it would have to do double duty.

During the next hour while waiting to start our swim wave (wave 10 of 13), I stretch, and stretch and stretch out my back.  It hurts, but I feel ok.  I am hopeful the swim will actually stretch it out and the adrenaline will keep the pain out of my head and back.  It does help focus my energy on that and not on my nerves.  By the time I started the swim, I feel calm.  I’m really not too nervous at all.

The Swim
Finally it’s our turn to go.  I jump in the water and start swimming.  I settle into a decently slow pace pretty quickly and feel pretty good.  I focus on sighting and keeping an eye on the farthest buoy.  I reach the far buoy which is approximately 1/3 of the way.  I feel ok.  My shoulder feels ok.  I continue swimming for what seems forever.  Somewhere past the halfway point I swallow a large amount of lake water.  This turns out to be an issue for most of the race as I apparently managed to get it down in my lungs.  I'm trying to cough it up while in the water which seems almost impossible to do.  I just stay focused and keep swimming, swimming, swimming.  Finally, my hand touches the sand and I stand up to start the very long run to transition.  For weeks, all I had focused on was getting through the swim no matter how long it took and then just biking and running like that was going to be the easy part.

I did NOT anticipate how exhausted I would be when I got out of the swim.  I had been in the water 43 minutes.  When I reached the beach my legs were quivering.  Had I kicked too hard??  Too much??  I tried to run, my calves started cramping.  I decided to take it easy.  I walked up the hill from the beach and once I finally reached pavement I tried a slow jog through transition.  I was exhausted.  How and the heck was I going to bike 25 miles and run 6.2?  I finally reached my bike - which was .2 miles from the beach.  It was a LONG transition.  I was still shaking.  I ate part of a cliff bar and drank some gatorade.  I had to sit down to take off my wetsuit.  I wasn't going to risk hurting my back even more.  I finally head out to bike - 5 minutes and 22 seconds later.  Due to the distance of the beach to transition most people had long transition times - around 2-3 minutes...but I had taken a really long time.

The Bike
Because I was in such a late swim wave, and because I'm such a slow swimmer, almost all of the bikes were gone from the racks when I started.  This was a bummer, as I already knew I was very behind most people.  I didn't have alot for the bike.  It's a pretty hilly course and my legs just felt dead.  I think I heard "On Your Left" about 300 times.  I was seriously beginning to think it was my name or something.  Yes, yes I know you are on my left.  You are passing me.  So is everyone else.  Congratulations.  By the time I started loop number 2 there was almost no one left on the bike course.  At least I wasn't hearing on your left anymore, but it was a weird feeling.  Even though I'm used to be in the bottom 25% at most races, I've not really experienced racing when no one is around.  I was starting to panic a little bit.  There was pretty much no one behind or in front of me.  I knew I was going to be running alone too and this was a very deflating feeling.  I finally finished the bike.  I wouldn't know my mph until later, but I knew I had been pretty slow.  When I got my results I averaged 15.1 mph, which was much slower than any of my training rides had been.  I was on the bike 1 hour and 38 minutes.

My second transition was a bit faster at only 2 minutes and 25 seconds, but it still could have been quicker, but I was really feeling tired by this point.  I threw on my running shoes, race belt, and visor and headed off.

The Run
I always struggle with the first mile of the run after the bike, and today was certainly no exception.  My calves were cramping almost immediately and I was just exhausted.  I was coughing like crazy.  That water I had swallowed during the swim was still in my lungs.  I couldn't seem to get it out and it felt like a weight on my chest.  I dealt with that until about mile 4 when it finally seemed to clear out of my lungs.  Mile 1 (and Mile 4) have a pretty steep hill to climb.  I stopped to walk several times and when I finally hit mile 1, I had an amazing 12:42 pace.  Yes, after months of improvement on the run and times in the 10s and 11s, I had just ran an almost 13 minute pace. I was feeling pretty discouraged.  I felt a little better during mile 2 and actually managed an 11:30 pace.  I ended up walk/running most of the 6.2 miles - much more running than walking, but still walking a little in each mile.  The run course is 2 loops.  Several times I would pass people during the first loop and they would say "you are almost there, stay strong"....they didn't realize I still had one more lap to go.  They saw how far behind I was from everyone else and assumed I must be almost done right??  Wrong.  I finally reached the 5K point and 3 of my friends come running out to tell me I'm doing a great job.  2 of them had done the sprint so they were already finished, and one was actually working for the race.  It was a nice little boost to help me get through those next 3 miles.  Those last 3 miles were tough.  So many people were heading home.  Part of the run course was the path to people's cars.  So at this point in the race I had to dodge in and out of pedestrians, which was very frustrating.  There was some of this during the first lap, but it was awful during lap 2.  At about mile 5, there is a girl dancing all by herself with a sign that just say Hooray.  When I run by I said "I need some of your energy".  She said well here you go and gives me a high five, and then proceeds to smack me on the butt!  It was hilarious.  I just had a totally stranger smack my ass.  This gives me a little jolt of injury - at least for a few minutes.  I finally see the finish line in sight.  And I see my friend Michelle cheering for me.  Then I look over and see my husband Jim!!  I hadn't expected to see him and that was so awesome.  He had decided to incorporate the race into his morning run and "swing" by and see me finish.  The run took me an 1 hour and 14 minutes.  It was a 12:01 pace.  It was my slowest run in months.  But..........I had FINISHED my first Olympic Distance Tri.  The race took me 3 hours, 43 minutes and 52 seconds!!

Post Race
It was a weird feeling.  I was "Happy" because I had just finished my first Olympic Distance Triathlon.  I had also come in right around my predicted time.  But I was also extremely disappointed.  I know I shouldn't have been, but I was.  I had not expected to feel so exhausted on the bike and run.  I had expected a much stronger race.  I thought I would be an hour on the swim, and I was only 43 minutes, so I thought I would end up finishing a little faster than anticipated, but it just didn't turn out that way.  I had my slowest bike and run times I've had during any of my training.  And, to top it all off I finished dead last in my age group - 41/41.  I have never finished last.  Towards the bottom - yes.  Last, no.  I was also 638 out of 650 overall.  My results were so disheartening.  I have learned to accept my slowness and realize it's just where I'm at, but for some reason this particular race was really difficult.  I have just never been that low on the totem pole.

I thought about things, and tried to shift my perspective. Yes there were 650 people in this race, but only 205 females.  Only 205 females even attempted to do this and I was one of them.  This was a major race bringing in some major talent.  I just did something so many people could never do, or ever even be brave enough to try.  There are 5 of us training for Racine and all 5 of us had planned to do the Olympic Distance.  Of those 5, only myself and Michelle finished the Olympic Distance for various reasons.  I had met my goal time, and I had finished the race.  End of story.  It was meant to be a training race.  I now know what I have to work on.  I could keep beating myself up or I could be proud of myself for what I had accomplished. 

After the race, I met up with my friends.  They were all super encouraging and telling me what a great job I did.  I began asking people how they did and several people I know did well enough to qualify for the 5150 Championship race in September, including my friend Michelle who was awesome and came in 10th in her age group!!!  Michelle is an amazing athlete!

I think I learned alot about myself during this race.  I was disappointed with the race, but I finished.  I never gave up.  I won't lie - when I came by the finish line and knew I had one more 3 mile lap to go on the run, I considered turning in and being done....but I could never do that.  I may be a slow triathlete.  But, I am  TRIATHLETE!!

Bound for the Olympics

Ahhh….fooled you right?  You thought I had somehow catapulted my slow self to Olympic competitor, but alas no.  What I meant to say is that I am bound for the Olympic Distance Triathlon this weekend.

For those of you who have been following my blog for awhile, you know I was supposed to do my first Olympic Distance Tri last Sept, and just a few days before the event I severely injured my shoulder and was unable to compete.  It devastated me, and I kind of promised myself I would never be quite that “vested” in a race again. 

So, maybe that’s why I haven’t made a big deal about this race.  It’s just kind of quietly snuck up on me.  It will still be my first Olympic tri, and it will also be my first ever wetsuit race so it should kind of be a big deal, but I’m really looking at it as more of a training race for my 70.3 in July than anything.  It’s my check point to see where I’m at – it’s my deciding point to see if I officially sign up for the Racine 70.3.

I won’t lie.  I don’t feel ready for the swim – AT ALL.  I am terribly nervous about that part.  My shoulder has still not healed (and I’m not sure it ever will without surgery).  I have had to baby it a lot during my training.  If I swim one day, and it hurts I may go 5 or 6 or 7 days before I swim again.  I have only been swimming 2 days a week max, and many times only 1, when my plan calls for 3xs per week and starting last week I’m supposed to be swimming 4xs per week.  My longest swim in the pool has been 1800 yards and that includes drills and breaks.  My swim Sunday is 1700 yards or 1 mile.  It is not going to be easy.  I am terribly afraid my shoulder will give out during the swim or hurt so bad afterward that I’m not able to swim for weeks.  All I know is that if I manage to make it through this on Sunday, my swim needs to be my focus for the remainder of my 70.3 training.

I feel ready for the bike and run.  I’ve have been putting in 100+ miles a week on the bike and I’ve completed 3 half marathons in the past 3 months.  But, I’ve never put this kind of bike/run distance together before so who knows what might really happen.  I’m hoping once I get out of that water though, that I’m feeling ready to go.

I expect the race to take me just under 4 hours (assuming that I make it out of the swim in around 45-50 minutes – which who knows).  I am excited, but also nervous.  I’m just not 100% sure what to expect.  Going into Hyvee last September, I felt pretty confident.  I knew I had trained exactly how I should for the distance, but I can’t say the same for this race.  The weather is going to be a little on the hot side approaching the mid 80s by the time I’m done. 

But at the end of the day, I love to do tris and I am excited about my first race of the season.  All of my Racine training buddies are racing either the Sprint or the Olympic Distance, so it will fun for all of us to be at a race together. 

It’s going to be a busy weekend though, as my step-daughter gets married on Friday and the race is on Sunday.  I really do like to overbook myself.

Stay tuned for results……………………………………………

7 Years of Bliss

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband Jim! It has seriously been nothing but bliss!!  Ha, we all know that's not true, marriage is hard, but it can be wonderful. I am truly married to my best friend.

So here's to 7 great years baby!!  I look forward to the many memories we still have to make.

I'll leave you with a few of the great memories we've already made.

Our Wedding Day 5-14-2005

Our Honeymoon - Maui, HI

Riveria Maya, Mexico

Big Cedar Lodge, Ridgedale, MO

Boston Red Sox Game - Boston Marathon

Walt Disney World Marathon - My first!

Turks and Caicos

When Pigs Fly!

What a great weekend!  Sunday was the Flying Pig Marathon (Half Marathon for me)in Cincinnati, OH.  As I've posted lately, work has just been insane crazy and I haven't had a full day off in close to a month, so I couldn't have been more excited to get away for a weekend and have 3 1/2 days off work!!  

I worked half a day Friday, and then Jim and I took off toward Cincinnati on Friday afternoon.  Since we didn't get going until about 2pm, we only drove to Indianapolis Friday night (about an 8 hour drive) and then drove into Cincy on Sat.  We took our time Sat, not having a set schedule.  We got up and had some breakfast, then drove into downtown Indy just to have a look around.  Then we finally headed in to Cincinnati and headed straight to the Flying Pig Expo. 

The expo was great!  Very similar to other expos at larger races, but still fun.  There were plenty of pigs everywhere and of course Jim and I couldn't resist the opportunity to "ham" it up for the camera.  Proctor and Gamble is the major sponsor for the race and had lots of free samples to hand out.  There was quite the line for some dish soap and tooth brushes.  And of course, the chance to photograph yourself on a giant toilet.



Grossest picture ever?????  Yes, probably.

After we walked around the expo for awhile, I called my friend Coy of First in Philly to see how close she was to the expo.  She was only about 30 minutes away, so we decided to wait for her at the expo instead of meeting up later.  I was sooooo excited to see Coy!  We've become great friends since we met up last October at the MO' Cowbell half marathon, literally texting, e-mailing or calling each other pretty much every day.  Coy finally made it, so we ending up going through the expo again for round #2.  As we were about to leave the expo, we also got a call from Jeff at Detroit Runner who had just gotten to the expo.  So we got a chance to meet him and chat for awhile and snap a pic.  It's always pretty cool to finally meet bloggers in person. 

We finally headed out of the expo and went to find some dinner.  I think Jim and I were at the expo for 4 hours!!  We went to a cool little river front area with shopping, dining and a movie theatre.  We ate at Brio, which is a great Italian restaurant.  We have one in Kansas City, so it wasn't anything new, but it was still good.  After dinner we headed over to the movies to see The Avengers.  Which was AWESOME by the way!!  The movie was long though around 2 1/2 hours so we didn't end up getting to the hotel to check in until around 10:30.  This was kind of a bad idea.  We were tired, and we would be getting up very, very early.

The Flying Pig starts at 6:30 am, so we were planning to leave the hotel at 5:15 am to get there plenty early.  That meant getting up at 4:15 - which is pretty normal for me, but since we didn't get in bed until after 11pm - it made for a very early morning.  Going into a race with limited sleep is probably never a very good idea.

I got up and dragged my lifeless body out of bed and got ready.  We of course, couldn't do a race without the pre-race dance party however.  Our friend Coy was invited to join in the party, which she gladly accepted.  I think she might be crazier than we are.  Coy added a whole new dimension to the pre-race dance.  We got a few weird stares from other runners trying to get in the elevator.

I have no idea what is going on here.  Is she rubbing my ear and picking her nose?

Finally, it was race time.  I knew going into this race this one going to be one to do just for "fun".  I had recently set my half marathon PR, and I knew I had no chance for a PR on this course and that was ok.  The course is super hilly.  It pretty much goes up hill for the first 9 miles.  It was also going to be hot and humid.  It was about 65 degrees at race start and close to about 75 by the time we finished, which isn't that bad, but the humidity was near 90%. 

Coy and I both had to go to the potty shortly before the race, so we got in line thinking that if the race started people would clear out.....they didn't.  We ended up still being in line well after the race started.  When we got out of the porta potty, there was pretty much no one around.  It was really weird to start a race at the very end like that.  We ran for awhile without really seeing many other runners, but then we caught up to the back of the pack.  The first several miles were tough trying to work ourselves around the walkers and finally catch up to the other runners.  The first mile I was really struggling.  I felt like I was working so hard.  I looked down at my Garmin expecting to realize that we were doing like a 9:30 pace or something, only to see an 11:25 average pace.....man I was working really hard for that kind of pace.  The humidity gets me every time.  Our first 2 miles were pretty slow as I tried to acclimate to the heat and humidity, but then we got moving in miles 3 and 4, but then came the BIG HILLS. There was a pretty good size hill at 5, with a nice downhill, but they from 6-10 it's climbing, climbing and more climbing.  I had to stop and walk a few times during some of those super climbs.  I am not a good hill runner at all.  We have alot of hills in Kansas City, but I struggle on them here too and end up walking them more than I'd like.

Finally, at around mile 10 you start the decline.  But after climbing so much, it's a pretty significant downhill.  Aerobically that's great, but it was absolutely burning up my quads, which had already been worked pretty hard.  We gained some momentum in miles 11 and 12, but I paid for it in the last mile. I was hurting - bad in mile 13.  My quads were dead, and I felt like I had nothing left and even had to stop and walk a couple of times in that last mile.  I like to finish strong at the end of the race, but I had nothing left.  The heat, humidity and hills, had got me.  We crossed the finish line and I have to admit I was glad to be done. 

It was a "long" race too, registering 13.44 on my Garmin.  I knew I was in trouble when at mile 1 my Garmin was already at 1.06.  An extra .33 miles is alot, but there was a ton of weaving in and out of people during those first several miles.  But in the end I finished in 2:31 so I was good with that considering the hills and weather and considering I hadn't broken 2:30 for a half marathon prior to February of this year.  So it ended up being my 3rd fastest half and I did have 4 miles in the 10:30s.

Check out that elevation and climb.

We got our medal, which is awesome with the Pig face on the front and the Pig butt on the back.  Then I grabbed some food - yummy stuff too - swiss cake rolls and potato chips...just what the doctor ordered after a tough race.  After the race we had about a mile walk back to the car.  My legs were just dead.  I knew I was going to be sore the next day - especially after a 10 hour drive home.  And I am.....my quads are still sore!

 Overall, it was a wonderful race.  The expo, shirt, medal are awesome!  You also get a poster and a duffel bag.  The volunteers were some of the best I have ever experienced at a race.  They were so encouraging and supportive.  Everyone was so friendly and excited to have you there.  Even our hotel staff clapped for us as we walked back in the door after the race.  It was a great added touch.   The crowd support was also wonderful.  There were people pretty much every step of the race.  The route itself isn't super exciting, and it is a hilly course, but I would still highly recommend this race to anyone. 

Slowly Making it

I haven't posted in awhile, and that's because life has been one crazy thing after another.  I have not had an extra second to spare.  I have been working like crazy.  Going in early, staying late, and working through lunch and on weekends.  It seems like every time I turn around there's something new coming at me.  I've had a hail storm of Murphy's Law dumped right over my head this whole month in addition to the crazy schedule. 

Somehow in the midst of all the madness I've been able to "mostly" maintain my half ironman training.  I came very, very close to making the decision to quit training about a week ago.  But I decided to somehow try to keep going and re access in a few weeks and see if I was still on track.  I'm not on track, but I don't feel too far behind.  I am managing to get my long workouts in - and I think those are the most important.  I haven't been able to get in all of my shorter weekly workouts but I'm doing the best I can.  At this point in my training I'm supposed to get in 3 workouts of each activity and I've been averaging at least 2.  This week I should be able to get in 3 bikes and 3 runs, but only 1 swim.  I haven't been able to get in more than 2 swims a week for the last several weeks and that is the thing I'm most concerned about right now.  My shoulder is still weak and I haven't been pushing myself very hard, but I'm still working toward the goal.  I am afraid that I won't be prepared for the swim - espeically for my Olympic distance race in 3 weeks.

I am pretty happy about where I am right now on the bike and the run.  My running times are certainly improving, and I can comfortably run a half marathon.  Last weekend I did a 50 mile ride and while it was tough, I made it through.  This weekend I will do 50 miles again and as a matter of fact - after tomorrow I will have ridden 150 miles in 6 days!!  That's more than I've ever done.  My speed on the bike is slow, and I'm still really slow on hills, but at least I'm getting in the mileage.  I really need to start focusing on the swim alot more.  It's just the more difficult workout to find the time for since I have no choice but to go to the gym and the gym hours haven't always worked so well with my schedule.

I should hopefully only have about 2 more crazy weeks at work til things settle down to a more manageable level.  I just need to make it through mid May.  Somehow just make it through Mid May.

Next weekend is the Flying Pig half marathon and the BEST part about it is that I will get to hang out and run with my good friend Coy of First in Philly!  I can't wait.  It will be a much needed break from the craziness too.

Sorry I've been missing out on reading every one's blogs.  Hopefully I can get caught back up soon.

I Freaking Rocked the Parkway - New Half PR!!!

Well if you read my last post you know I had a kind of sucky Birthday, but that all went out the window on Saturday!

Jim and I were doing the Rock the Parkway Half Marathon in lovely Kansas City, MO.  It's a great race that runs along Ward Parkway in Kansas City where there are many beautiful old historic homes.   The streets are tree lined, there's a beautiful park.  It's really just a nice run.  Most people call the course flat....which it's really not.  It's actually pretty hilly, but the hills are fairly short, but they are numerous.  I don't think there's anything in KC that could truly be considered flat.

The World Famous Pre-race Dance Pics:

After having a few stressful weeks at work and eating myself to death, I was feeling a little icky on Saturday morning.  I didn't dare weigh myself, but I'm pretty sure my weight was up 5 to 6 pounds - because that's about where I was on Friday (in a week's time).  I was just feeling bloated and sluggish.  I was really hoping to run a 2:25, but I just wasn't sure it was going to happen.

My friend Kristi and I were going to run together, so we picked her up on the way and headed to the race.  The weather forecast was calling for rain and it looked like it could rain anytime but it never did.  But man it was HUMID.  It was about 65 degrees at race start with 90% humidity.  It could have been worse, but it certainly wasn't pleasant running conditions.  At about mile one, I was sweating pretty profusely.

Kristi and I set our sites on the 2:25 pace group, but within the first mile we were ahead of them.  We were probably going a bit too fast to start, but we hadn't passed the 2:20 group, so I was feeling ok with that.  I thought as long as I stayed between the 2 groups I should be fine.

I ran in to several people I knew during the race.  After just a couple of miles, I ran into my friend Christa who did Brew to Brew with me a few weeks ago.  She had recently pulled a hamstring, so she was hurting, but she was also running with a friend to help pace her to a new PR.  Christa would normally have been far in front of me.  Later in the race I found another friend, who unfortunately was walking and looked like she was in alot of pain.  I found out later she thinks she has a stress fracture in her foot and ended up having to be transported to the end by ambulance at mile 8.  NO fun at all!!  One of the highlights of the race though was seeing my friend Susan at about mile 11 or so I think.  Susan is an amazing woman and great athlete.  She was supposed to run the race, but recently discovered some pretty severe heart problems.  She just had a heart procedure done on Monday!!  But there she was cheering the runners on and looking for her friends.  I gave her a high five and it totally boosted my spirits for the rest of the race.

Anyway, back to the race.  After about the first 2 miles, I kind of settled in to my pace and found it rather comfortable to run in the uppers 10s.  My overall times have been getting faster and I think I am finally realizing that I've just flat out not been pushing myself hard enough.  I can run faster and it doesn't kill me.  The heat was pretty brutal.  At about mile 8 my friend Kristi had to go to the bathroom, so I decided to head on without her.  She changed her mind and ended up running to try to catch back up to me, but that was probably a bad move....by about 8.5 her heart rate was high and she was starting to feel "cold" which wasn't good.  She decided to stop and walk so I said goodbye and kept going.  We had already talked at the beginning of the race that either of us could go ahead if the other one wasn't feeling it. I still felt kind of bad, but I didn't want to stop running.

Me & a few of my friends after the race

The last 4 miles of the race were kind of scary.  I have never seen so many people in ambulances or just lying on the ground on the side.  I saw several people stopped trying to recover and 3 people being put into stretchers.  I guess it was mainly the heat, as people aren't quite used to this humidity yet.  My last few races and training runs I've been able to push really hard for the last couple of miles, but I wasn't quite able to do that this time.  The heat was definitely getting to me.  But I did manage to keep a pretty steady pace for most of the race and I did still run my fastest mile at mile 13 so I was super happy with that.

In the end I crossed the finish line at 2:23:23!!  A 10:57 pace!!!  I have never posted a 10 anything in any race including a 5K.  I took off 6 minutes from my recent PR in Little Rock in March.  I couldn't have been happier or more excited.  And the great thing is I felt great, and think I could have even been faster if the weather had been a little nicer.  This slow runner, is still slow by most standards, but I'm getting faster!

A very nice half marathon medal

Jim finds me at the finish line and asks how I did.  He was so proud and happy for me.  He was hoping for a PR himself and was extremely disappointed with his race, but he still let me have my happy moment.  I was upset for him though, because we all know we are only racing against ourselves and when we don't perform like we want it, well it just plain sucks.

The race was great.  I love the medal.  And I had an awesome experience.  I would definitely do this race again.

Birthdays Do Not Counteract Friday the 13th

So, as I mentioned in my last post my life is just crazy right now.  I have been beyond stressed out.  I have seriously been stressed to the ultimate limits.  For Christmas, I had purchased Jim tickets to the Kansas City Royals Home opener, which just happened to be on my Birthday.  I thought it would be fun to take a vacation day on my Birthday, go to the game and have a nice long weekend.  Well, work was just a bit too crazy for that so the best I could do was a 1/2 day vacation - luckily the game didn't start until 3pm.

Anyway, I woke up this morning feeling a little less stressed.  It was my Birthday and I had a fun day planned.  I got up, and as I usually do, I got online for a little while before actually getting out of bed and waking up.  Today was pay day, so I went to check my bank account to make sure my check cleared ok.  What happens next starts a whole list of things that happened throughout the day.  Here they are in order:

1.  I open my checking account to find a major negative balance - as in a 5 digit negative balance!  I immediately thought my account had been hacked, but no, idiot me, in my stressful state had added an extra zero to the end of my mortgage payment.  Nice way to start the day at 5:30 am.

2.  I pull out of the garage and it's pouring rain.....I back into the trash can. 

3.  I get to work and try to enter the building and realize I'm missing my security badge which grants me access.  I knew I had it with me.  I went back to my car and search for it....no where to be found.  Then it dawns on me.  I bet I threw it away when I threw away my coffee cup.  I go to the trashcan and sure enough I can see it at the bottom.  So I have to sift through trash and dig my badge out.

4.  I finally make it home and Jim and I are grabbing a quick lunch before the game.  I had ordered a coke zero.  I set it in my cup holder and when I pick it up it has coke streaming out the bottom of it.  I realize I had a pair of earrings in my cup holder, which have punctured the cup and it is leaking like crazy.  We have to stop on the side of the road to pour it out.

5.  We head to the Royals game, and while nothing happens to me there (thank goodness), the Indians score 7 runs in the 1st inning!!!! 7 runs.  They go on to win 8 to 3.  I am certain I caused the Royals loss.

6.  We have dinner at a new little sub place we hadn't eaten at before.  They also serve crepes.  We both order one.  Apparently one of them breaks while we are there and they take forever to make, and we get them one at a time so I was totally done eating mine by the time Jim got his.

Well, that's about it.....I really hope tomorrow is better.  Oh, and are you wondering about the mortgage payment??  Well it was in pending status, so guess what that means, they can't do anything about it until Monday.  So Jim and I have no access to our bank account all weekend.....awesomeness.  I'm not generally superstitious, but I can't help but think I was struck by the Friday the 13th curse.  And Birthday or no Birthday, I got it just the same.

Tomorrow is the Rock the Parkway Half Marathon.  We are supposed to have some severe weather.  I so hope it doesn't effect the race.  But I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Tomorrow will be a new day, a better day.  I hope :)