Double Race Report

This weekend, I raced in two races.

The first one was the Indian Springs Sprint Tri. More importantly than my race, it was George's first Triathlon! I don't have pictures since we were both racing.

We got registered, set up transition, said hello to Joshua, my teammate, and Shannon and Laura, George's teammate and wife. Then, I headed to the bathroom, and came back while everyone was chatting. We were about to walk to the lake when I realized that I didn't have my cap and goggle anymore. I start looking around transition. Keep looking....keep looking...and then I realize....

Here comes the most disgusting thing that has ever happened to be in a race. You might not want to read if you get easily grossed out.

I realized that they were in my back pocket when I went to the bathroom. So I went back the the port o pottie. Hoping no one had used that one (right!)...a guy walks out....I walk in....PLEASE be on the floor....and there is my cap. In the hole of the port o pottie. I know my goggles are INSIDE the cap. I don't have any more goggles. This is supposed to be George's day, not my day to have a crisis. Oh God. Before I allowed myself to consider what i was even doing, I reached in the the hole, grabbed the cap, ran out, got my goggles out from inside the cap where they were pretty much protected (I am buying new ones anyway), thew away the cap, washed the goggles, and got a new race cap--and I managed not to throw up the whole time.

George appreciated me doing something that would distract him and his nerves :-) Yeah, that's it....I totally did it on purpose to help my husband...yeah...that's it.

If you don't ever want to be my friend after reading that story, I understand. I know. I am so still grossed out.

******Deep breath******

Time to race. The good people at 1st Choice Healthcare who sponsored the race, gave me an entry, so I was able to race side by side with George. It was a 600yd swim with a long run to transition, a 14.5 mile ride, and a hilly 5K.

My goals were to 1. Have a good time 2. Not be terrible and 3. Not get too exhausted since I had a race the next day and it was a bigger one.

George's goals were to 1. Not be the last swimmer in out of the water and 2. Have some of the fastest bike and run time in the whole race.

All in all, every goal was accomplished. I finished 4th in my age group. 2nd and 3rd and 4th were all within a minute. I didn't really have the mental focus or the physical desire to try to really race. So I was 4th. Again. (I am always 4th :-(....one day I will be third....it's going to happen!!!).

Here is George's tweet after the race. He ran a sub 18 minute 5K on a very hilly course. Watch out as these swimming lessons progress.

I am so incredibly proud of him for having a great sense of humor about the whole thing. He is going to be great, and I am SO proud that he got out there and went for it, even though he is really just learning his swim stroke. 2nd in the novice division!!!!!

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Race #2

Sunday, we went to Hiawasse, GA for the Ridges 5K swim, which is actually 3.25 miles :-) This is the third time I have done this swim. The first year, I did it in 2:22, and got kind of lost. Last year, I did it in 2:01:57. I wasn't feeling totally ready, but hey, George wasn't feeling ready yesterday, and he did it anyway....so off I went.

First of all, I was VERY careful in the bathroom.

Then we jumped in the water and went for it.

This race has grown tremendously since the first time I did it.

I really tried to stay a bit more focused, and I only really got tired/bored/frustrated between 1:20-1:30, then I was able to rally and finish well.

I finished in 1:54:58....happy with continuing to improve!

So that was our eventful weekend :-)

Wheels everywhere......

Which can only mean that.....

Tomorrow is race day!

Back to the home of my very first triathlon, and poetically, it will be George's first triathlon!

We finished packing our gear, and now george is moving wheels around...there are a lot of wheels going on in our little living room right now!

Who says we don't know how to have a good time on a Friday night!?!

Something New

So often on my blog, I talk about how proud I am of my husband, George.

He is a very accomplished running, and a Cat2 cyclist. When we go to races, he comes home with medals, free shoes, money, etc. It's lots of fun for me, as I get to pick over the goodies! :-)

Now, don't get me wrong, George works really really hard for what he accomplishes. But he is also good. That's just how it is.

George decided to become a triathlete for real. We signed him up for a sprint, olympic, half, and full all this year. But, not as crazy as it sounds, since he has done SO much cycling and running.

But not swimming.

So he started taking lessons. And it has been hard. There have been some great lessons, and there have been some bad days. Some days, he comes back feeling like it is starting to come together. Some days, he comes back feeling like a sinking brick in the water. AND, sometimes, he feels like he's the only one struggling with swimming (we did just go to that 4.5 mile swim and a ton of triathlons--you can start to feel alone with people who are fish around!).

Today, we went to the pool together. I wore my (adorable) TYR workout Bikini, and proceeded to be a lap counter/cheerleader (yes, I actually was a cheerleader in school).

George finished 1200 yds today, with his longest continuous set ever of 300 yds.

This is huge.

This was an actual workout, and not only doing drills. Don't get me wrong, George is doing drills like crazy with his swim coach. But today felt different. It's beginning to come together.

I am so proud of him.

We all face these walls in the sports that we love, but I am just so proud that he is pushing through the bad and the work and the frustration to get to the good part.

If you read this, and ANY of it is familiar to you (learning a new sport, particularly swimming), post up a comment of support/commiseration!!

I promise, it will help him feel better going into his FIRST triathlon ever on Saturday!!!

Possum Trot 10K

This weekend, George and I ran the Possum Trot 10K.

Neither of us had been doing speed work, so we had no idea what to expect.

This course is a flat one, with a few painful hills between miles 5 and6. I ran my 10K PR here, which is right at :49, but I knew I had no chance of that Saturday. I have done no speed work, I am 6 weeks out of St.George, and I had a big but great training week.

So over spaghetti (Friday night thing at our house!), we discussed our goals. George was hoping for around :37, and I wanted to be under :56.

We show up to the race, pick up our numbers, and get going to the start. We start going. I hit mile one at 8:20, which I was sure I could not maintain, so I tried to settle in a little. There was a long out and back, so I saw the leader way out front, and then I saw George in a pack of four behind him. I gathered my energy to cheer for him and then kept on going. I kept up the pace pretty well, and when I hit those last couple of hills, I was sure I was going to toss my cookies. Fortunately, cookies stayed in place, and I finished in 53:46! Yippie! Not lightening fast,but SO much faster than I have been running. George finished 4th overall in 34:56, which was first in his age group by a long shot.

This was not the most comfortable race, but that is good for me. I need to push myself some in a few shorter things, so that I get a little snappier in the longer stuff!

Next weekend is a 5K swim race!



Here's George with his medal! I am always SO proud of him at races! He is SO fast! Watch out Cozumel!

Chattanooga Rat Race 4.5 Mile Open Water Swim Race Report

Yesterday, I raced my longest open water swim race ever.

I have a strange attraction to races that I am 1. Not entirely ready to do and 2. Are too hard 3. Not many people want to do, so registration is still open.

This one hits all three points, so of course, I find myself at the starting line!

The rat race is supposed to be a downstream swim. I arrived at the start banking on that. The dam had been open ALL week....until 1am before the race. They said they would open it up again 1.5 hours into the race (at which point we would be farther downstream).

Also the night before the race, my little brother (who is 8) asked me if there were river sharks in this river. Nothing like brotherly love to REALLY get you nervous for a race ;-)

We showed up at the start, and I felt at home among all of the triathlon t-shirts. Yes! I am not the only crazy triathlete at these all swim races. But wait....they are all going to the 1.2 mile swim. y people left me for the short race. And I am on vans going to the start line with people who travelled from Baton Rouge and Cincinatti to get to this race. They all did 10K swims this year. Great.

We pull up to the start, and the water is so still, I am not sure which way the river is going. Awesome.

Then, we have to get in (and because of a short delay), we are waiting treading water and holding to to kayaks....going no where. Not much of a river!

And we take off. I am terrible at sighting, but luckily in a river (even a huge one), there is really only one way to go. So I don't worry too much about my line and I just swim. The race was REALLY well supported. Mind you, this is a large river with large boats--but I felt totally safe. There were support kayaks and jet skis by my side for the entire race. I didn't feel like I ever had to worry about being seen, I just had to worry about swimming. And swim I did. Because of that, I would recommend this crazy race to anyone who gets the feeling that they need to swim almost twice an Ironman distance swim!

In case you were interested, I am a slow swimmer, and I have done 5Ks before. What that means is that I have learned to bring fuel. I sipped on a electrolyte drink all morning, took a gel right before the race, and packed two in my bathing suits.

I really wanted to beat the 3 hour time cut off. That was my goal. I came in at 2:15! For a while when I was swimming, my mantra was "no bike no run no bike no run." :-)

You finish this race under a bridge, and people yell at you "you're done!" and that's the finish line!

On the one hand, I was 34th out of 40 people, and the last woman in. That is tough for the ego. However, only 40 people did the race. I don't know a lot of people who are willing to jump in open water for hours. So I have to be proud of my accomplishment. Even though it's tough to come in SO much slower than other people.

Also not my favorite picture ever, but I was feeling pretty good in this moment, so I figured it was worth sharing. And yes, my toes were VERY wrinkled after that long in the water!

Rev3 Quassy Olympic and Aquabike!

For the past week, George and I took a road trip up north!

First, we drove to Raleigh, where we stayed with George's aunt Georgia. Then, we kept on driving to DC, where we staying with George's sister, brother-in-law, and our three neices! We saw our friends Eric, Wendy, and Karla, as well as running around the monuments!

Then, we made the final leg of the trip to Conneticut to stay with my awesome teammate Laura and race in the Rev3 races.

This was just great!!! I got to meet lots of my teammmates in person on Fridays dinner!

Then, on Saturday, I raced the Olympic disctance, and George volunteered. Rev3 puts on a really awesome race! The course was hard, but fair, and I was treated as if I were a really serious athlete doing a very long race. I had anything I needed!

Here is the only image I have from the race, since George was volunteering:

Not really sure why I look like I am in pain. I love that wetsuit!

And here on the stats from my race. Not really impressed by any of it. I was just happy to be out there and spending time with my Trakkers family! I am somewhat happy with the swim, but you can really see that I have NO speed in my run legs right now. AND, that bike course was tough. Ok, enough excuses:

I had a great time out on the course, and I will try to let that slow bike/run just slide off of my shoulders. They will come back to me!

Then, we had a great dinner Saturday night with the team again. On Sunday, Rev3 put on a half distance. They were AMAZING, and they let George and me sign up for the aquabike as a relay. This was such a great experience! I got to swim, and George had a great time out on the bike. I am really really happy with this day. I had an awesome swim, and George's bike went really well (except he realized that his brake was rubbing HARD on the wheel--could be faster--next time!). I am going to post this just so that it looks like I did this ride....

Because we were the only ones doing a relay, we are technically DQ-ed so that we were not all mixed up in the results. Rev3 is great. They were so willing to work with us to help us have a really amazing experience on this day. This was an awesome day where George and I got to share a race together. I can't thank Rev3 enough for that chance!

OH--when you cross the finish line at a Rev3 race, they put your picture up on a Jumbo Tron! When George and I crossed together, they put up a picture of both of us! It was GREAT!

We both can't wait for Cedar Point! I will be racing the full, and George will be racing the half. It was such an awesome weekend for us!

So great to meet all of my team out there! I can't wait to see you all again!!!!