We Made It!

I owe this blog a MUCH longer race report for a 3000 mile race, but it has been a whirlwind after finishing RAAM! Here are just a few picture highlights!

 Looking very clean, rested, and fresh! This must be us pre-race!

Again--the van is fresh enough to do things like pyramids!



Ready to roll!



Time to start this thing--and it's dark---that is a theme for the first few days!



And it's still dark....




Now starting to get a little loopy from riding in the dark so much--time to pull out the hula skirts!




























Some brief sight seeing. Sparkles: "We are going to Four Corner, you are taking some pictures, and you are going to like it!"

Sparkles: "Now you are going to get some pictures by these haystacks and like it."
Lookin like farmer types, right?


Rode my bike...



Traded off with my teammates!



Rode my bike some more....



And then rode my bike...

And then I had the pleasure of riding my bike!

We didn't sleep all that much at all whatsoever really at all or at normal time. Things got silly a few times!

Banana Slugs..

Junk food!

Monsters!

More monsters! And a lot of caffeine!

I really loved riding my bike.....and wished I could have kept on riding (though I did want some sleep!)



We made it!



















Everyone who volunteered to crew worked hard and got us from one side of the country to another. THANK you all!

I personally owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the two amazing women who came with me.

The amazing, hard working, tireless, and always upbeat Anne. The entire team was stronger because you were there. Your collection of temporary tattoos, awesome gifts at the rider exchanges, and great team nicknames were amazing. Thank you.

 
















And my driver/navigator/sing-along buddy/companion/shoulder to cry on/bike loader/water bottle filler/best friend/shrink/conspirator/Mr. T rap producer/story teller/gear carrier/level head/big ball of awesome-ness--Sparkles!!!

I have long considered you among my best friends in the world, and our time together in this race showed me how incredibly fortunate I am to have you in my life.

Thank you. Thank you so much. No really, Thank you.






I mean it. Thank you. How wonderful is your life when your friends support you in you dreams/adventures by giving up so much of themselves? It is really really wonderful.


A huge adventure, and my lasting feeling is one of gratitude.

Thank you.

Tracking me as I Race Across America!

Quick run down of this race:

• I am on an 8 person team that is supporting the Shepherd Center in Atlanta.
• Between the 8 of us, we will race over 3000 miles.
• We will be racing continuously, as the clock never stops in RAAM!
• The race for us starts on June 16th at noon.
• We hope to be done in 6-ish days!
• We have 5 vehicles that are travelling as a part of our team.
• We are in four teams of 2, and each team will be taking a 5 hour shift ON (riding), and a 15 hour shift off!

Here is the tracking information:

The ACTUAL race website is here, and they do a variety of tracking and web videos about the race. George and I love following this website every year, and this year I will be on it! So great :

http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/raam.php?N_webcat_id=1

My team will have an ongoing blog that is ONLY about our team! There are great pictures and updates throughout the race, and you can find that here!:

http://teamshepherd2012.wordpress.com/

My personal updates will be on my blog, my facebook, and my twitter accounts!

Blog: http://kacietri-ing.blogspot.com/

Facebook (if you want to follow me here, feel FREE to friend me!): http://www.facebook.com/kacie.darden 

Twitter (same with twitter!): https://twitter.com/#!/kacie_tri_ing

Donations to the Shepherd center can be made at this website. We and the patients there appreciate anything you are willing to or able to give!

http://www.shepherd.org/resources/raam

Cheers! And thanks for following my crazy adventures!

RAANDOM RAAM Updates--Pre-departure

Yesterday, we packed up all of our bikes and gear into four vans that I will see again in Oceanside on Wednesday!

Our Race Across America team is officially ready!

Leading into this packing day, I was training myself into the ground. So much so that I spent most of the day today just watching TV, napping, and finding more food to eat! I think that means that you came to the end of your training cycle and broke yourself down as much as possible.

Yesterday, we packed up, and our team blog has some great pictures that I am stealing about how our vans look:

Anne sparkles and I worked really hard with all of the tools and stuff. hehehehe. Our Team blog called it strategizing!

I was worried that I would be really sad saying goodbye to my bikes, but I mostly just wanted some fro yo and some sleep...which I got promptly after packing!

A little trippy that it is backwards, but here is our team shirt:

And the back has a great picture of Blaze!

And here is our team kit:

But we also have a team post up about the roster of people who are a part of this team!

Mostly, I like that Anne's picture is from my double iron:

And that Sparkles' picture does not disappoint:

Mine is from Rev3 Knoxville:

So the thing I can't stop thinking about right now is that Leslie's tubs of gear (Leslie is a friend who is also a racer on the team) have hot pink zebra print duct tape on them. And mine don't. I think I need to pull myself together before this race starts.

I had dinner with my good friends Jill and Colleen this week, which was a blast.  We had a great time, tons of food, and lots of laughs! Colleen's husband has raced RAAM twice with Team Type 1, who are super fast! She gave me the most thoughtful gift of "things I didn't know I would need" for RAAM, including pink earplugs and a sleeping mask! Brilliant! Thanks you two!

And my wonderful husband George gave me these sunglasses as a "RAAM Present."

Why yes, they DO match the helmet I am wearing in this picture EXACTLY!

I also bought this guy for our van's dashboard:

Double Tri-anasaurous Rex Attack: Rev 3 Quassy

And we were BACK!

I finished post planning at school, ran home, threw some stuff in the car, and the road trip began!



We were heading north! To Middlebury, CT to race in Rev3's olympic relay, half iron relay, and George was racing the Aquabike!

I might lose my friend jill over this photo, but I really think that it displays how we were feeling about Saturday's race. 

It was raining, we were cold, we were feeling a little iffy, but you know what? She put on that wetsuit, we raced, and we got second place in the relay division!

And then Sunday came......

Sunday was the day of the technical issues for our family!

First, our car got stuck in the mud. And we just left it, and went to race...



Then, I had some issues with my chain and had to get off my bike twice. George had TWO flats IN transitions! Yikes!

All in all though, everyone had a great, and fun race! We all put in an awesome effort, and we were so glad to have done it!

And then our car was still stuck in the mud. Thanks to some REALLY nice people, we were able to get it out, get coated in mud (at one point, George was face first in the mud!), and then we drove that beauty to Manhattan to have dinner with some friends!

Luckily for us it rained, which we thought would help that car. No luck. But it did cause a double rainbow!



So we had a great dinner in Manhattan, and drove straight home through the night!!!

What an adventure of a weekend!!

TRI-Anasaurous Rex Attack! AKA Rev3 Knoxville Race Report

Shakin' in you boots, aren't ya?

That's what I thought......in fact, that is EXACTLY the reaction we were going for with our ferocious team name for our half iron relay!

So this weekend, Sparkles, George and I hopped in the car to head up to Knoxville for the Rev3 Race. George was planning to race the half, and Sparkles, Jill, and I had plans to dominate the relay division.

We drove up to my parents house to hang out with my awesome family, and steal food.

Here is my little sister's cat. Yes, that is a lion cut.

After our overnight relaxing at my parents, we got up, and headed north to Knoxville!

We headed up to the race site for check in, practice swim, and such.

I got my awesome new kit!

Got my bike all checked in! Pepper has her own name tag with our awesome team name on it!

Since we were doing so many things with my team, we had dinner with George's team from All3 Sports at a yummy place called Oodles. Honestly--I was really impressed with what a cool town Knoxville is!

After dinner, we headed back to the Holiday Inn. It was right by the finish, which was SO convenient! Then Sparkles, George, and I laid around feeling really full from dinner and getting tatted up for the race. George showing his guns off.

The next morning, Jill, Sparkles, and I met in the parking garage/transition! Then, we sent off George and Jill to the swim! 

While Jill was swimming, I had time to make sure my nutrition was right, and to get really nervous! Sparkles and I got to play with her awesome kids, and have a picnic breakfast. Right before my leg of the race, I had about half of a cookies and cream powerbar. I am kind of obsessed with these. I mean....I might have a problem. Sometimes, I think that getting to eat one of these is the only thing that gets me on my bike! Just posting this picture makes my mouth water.

Ok ok--I'll move on with the race report!

Jill came out in an excellent 37 minute (with a long run up to transition!). I struggled to pull of the timing chip because I was excited!

Then, I hopped on my bike and was gone. This course is legit. There are a couple of climbs, twisty descents, relentless rollers, and then back to the climbs again. I am SO glad that I have been climbing. And watching my food intake (except cookies and cream powerbars--move ON kacie). And keeping my climbing attitude good.

This was the first race I have ever done entirely on my bike. I was really nervous that I would not give it enough. My big fea in this race was holding back too much. I have always ridden knowing I had to run. 

George gave me some advice going into the race:

1. Push over all of the hills. You don't have to run.

2. Keep power on the pedals all the time. Particularly when it would be easy to coast. A little power in the pedals with speed up those "would be coasting times."

3. Turn yourself inside out in the last 6 miles.

The first half was hard. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hold on to the pace. Then from about 30-45, I was having a BLAST. I mean, I was grinning like a mad woman. I was just So happy to be on my bike, and I was working hard, moving fast, and enjoying every hill.

For nutrition, I took a powergel at 30 minute, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours, and a last one at 2:15. I alternate between raspberry cream and kona punch. Both are YUMMY. I love how thin they are that they just slide down and I don't have to think about it. 

 and 

I started to really push on those last climbs, or as Jill called them "baby gaps" coming back into the city.

The final stretch had lots of turns in it and a couple of serious punchy hills. My dream time was 2:45, and I came in at 2:44:40!!!! SO SO SO happy with that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I actually surprised Sparkles a little bit, since I told her that 2:45 was my reach time. Sparkles has quite literally been a dancing machine lately, and warned us that her half marathon would be slow. She looked great when she took off, but it was hot. She told me to expect her around 2:45. I told her to have FUN!

In the meantime, I went to cheer for George's finish. It was SOOO exciting. George was the first guy across the line. I completely lost my voice screaming for him! 

He crossed the line and told me that there was a guy behind him that was one wave behind. So we watched the clock. And waited. And then the guy came across 2:30 later, so George took second OVERALL (in his second ever half ironman, having learned to swim less than a year ago!). SOOOOO proud of him!

George took home some really amazing winnings! I am still so proud of him! 4:33 with hills and heat!?! We'll take it!

As I was walking to get my bike, expecting to have about 30 more minutes until Sparkles comes up, what do I see? A streak of fast cuteness fly by me! Sparkles came in in 2:22!!!!! Yeah she did!!!! I am just SO proud of everyone this weekend!

We got our cool finishers medals:

And then, we got our awards! We were announced 3rd, but since they corrected the results, it looks like we might have actually won the relay division :-) Still waiting for final confirmation though.....

One way or another, we are all really proud of our results. We also took home some of the Powerbar Recovery Bars, which look dangerously good. 

As a team, we are totally going for a return performance. The TRI-anasaurous Rexes will be ROARING again in Quassy in 4 weeks! I am trying to convince the team to race both races ;-)

Sadly, after the event, we had to head on home....

On the way back, we stopped at a gas station, because George said that he would get second overall in a 70.3 for a Klondike Bar. ;-)