Philly Rock n Roll Half Marathon

The Philly Rock n Roll Half (formerly PDR) is probably my favorite race of the year. I love the course, a ton of my running buddies participate and the weather is always perfect. Since it fell the week after my 70.3 this year, I wasn't going to drop the money on a race I wasn't sure would even happen since I had no clue how I would recover from the HIM. But then a while back Brooks offered up a slot and I nabbed it thinking I would just run for fun and use it as a training run.

The day before the race I did everything you shouldn't do the day before. I volunteered at the Expo working the Brooks Cavalade and spent 8+ hours on my feet non stop. It was fun, but it was a long day and some how I never got told that lunch was delivered. So aside from my breakfast and enormous coffee, I only had a banana and a few sips of water all day. Needless to say, I was tired, hungry and cranky by the time my shift was over around 4pm.

After the Expo Andy picked me up and we headed to my sisters house in NJ for dinner. Within a minute of walking in the door I scarfed down some brie with grapes, hummus and pita, and a glass of wine. Perfect pre race nutrition!! We had a really nice dinner with my entire family and after a ton of food and 2 more glasses of wine; I could hardly keep my eyes open. My legs were throbbing, we still had an hour drive home, I had nothing ready for the morning and I questioned if I even wanted to bother with the race at all. I thought about it on the way home and figured I had to do a 13 mile run anyway, I mine as well run with a lot of people and get a medal out of it. So when we got home, I threw some stuff together and went straight to bed.

Woke up Sunday morning to chilly temperatures and met up with the running club to car pool. We got to the start with plenty of time and just relaxed. It was so nice having NO pressure on myself for this race. My only goal was to have a good run. After having to take walk breaks last weekend, even if they were after I swam and biked 58 miles, it still messed with me a little and I was concerned my running was starting to suck.

Anyway, lined up in corral 3 and we were off before I knew it. I had no intentions of looking at my watch and decided to just run by feel. The miles were ticking away and before I knew it we were looping back past the art museum around mile 5. Waves of runners were still starting; can't imagine starting over a half hour after the first wave! Once we hit this point all we had left was the Kelly/West River Drive loop which I ran 6 times for my Ultra. There's a part of this that's really boring and always messes with me, but knowing I only had to run it once and not 6 times, piece of cake!

I felt pretty good the entire race and each time I checked my watch I was under 8 minute miles. Since I can't do math in my head, especially when running, I had no idea how I was doing in terms of finishing. A few times I wanted to slow down and thought I was, but when I looked at my watch I was holding my pace steady. With 3 miles to go, I decided there was no way I was going to fall off pace now and pushed myself to keep going strong. I ran into a friend from the gym with about a mile to go and knowing she was on pace for a huge PR, I tried to push myself harder in hopes it would push her harder, too. I checked my watch and saw how close I was to a PR and knew I had to kick it into high gear the final uphill stretch. Thank goodness for these thighs I have, they come in handy at times like these, and I hit a sub 7 up the hill to the finish.

To my surprise, I squeezed out a little PR! Nothing to write home about, but since I wasn't racing and this was the week after my 70.3, I was pretty happy with the outcome. Especially since I felt great out there and the pace was completely comfortable.  I am kicking myself a little for the day I had on Saturday and wondering how I could have done had I went into this with the goal of racing, but there's nothing I can do about that now. I now have my sights set on the Philly half in November and want to all out race that. I can't say I've actually pushed real hard and raced a half before so that needs to change. I have a marathon schedule full of speed work and am excited to see what I can pull off in 2 months.

1:42:11

pace - 7:48

1887 / 16476 (total)

91 / 1743 (division)

435 / 9496 (female)

Post 70.3 Blues

Big races are like weddings. You put in so much time and effort thinking, planning and getting ready. Then all of a sudden, it's over in a blink of an eye and you're left wondering where the day went. I usually feel a little lost after a big race and sad that it's all over, but this time around, I'm crushed. I've been so down since Saturday and would give anything to go back and do it all over again. The fact that it was my last Tri of the season isn't helping matters either. I did look up some races to see if I could fit one more in but with 2 half marathons and a marathon already on my schedule for the rest of the year, I need to switch gears and stay focused on what's coming up.

Aside from feeling bummed out, my body feels pretty good. It took a day or so for my legs to actually feel a little sore but even then, it was nothing like being sore after a marathon. The worst of my soreness was actually my upper body which I think was from the position on the bike, coughing, and snot rocket neck turning. It's nice knowing that such a tough course didn't beat me up too bad physically and that I was in the right shape for the race.

I've been trying to not dwell on my finish time and just celebrate the fact that I finished. But for anyone who's been reading for a while, you know I'm really hard on myself.  Especially when I know I am capable of more. I did get confirmation from the race director that the swim was long, but they aren't sure by how much. Turns out they had the fire company set up the course and they screwed it up. So I feel a little better knowing there was a reason for my swim time and it wasn't just that I suck that badly. And I feel even better knowing that not only can I swim 1.2 miles, but I can swim more than that...just not sure how much more. (after I wrote this I found out that someone who wore a garmin on the swim had it measured at 1.6 miles...that's a HUGE difference!)

I've been doing a lot of thinking since Saturday and I'm feeling sort of good about my goals for next year. I have some things I want to research and iron out before I make anything official though. It's not as simple as just registering; I need to make sure I can fit this into my life, that I have support, funds, coaching, etc. Saturday was only half of an Ironman and it required a lot of sacrifices on both me and Andy. On top of that, I was lucky enough to do this one close to home and have my parents, Andy and friend KT there for portions of the race. I can't even express how much it helps knowing I'm going to see people while I'm out there and I can't imagine doing twice the distance without the motivation that I'll see loved ones along the way.

As usual, my mind is racing...

Quakerman 70.3 Race Report

I don't know what it is with me getting sick the week of the race but once again it happened. I came down with a killer cold the weekend before the race that left me on the couch for 3 days straight. I thought a week was enough time to lick it but when I woke up Friday morning (the day before the race) and had to take meds, I was a little worried. Thankfully I had nothing to do on Friday but get ready and relax, and that's all I did. I headed to bed exhausted but couldn't fall asleep. I usually sleep pretty well the night before a race but all I did was toss and turn all night. It was horrible. When 4:30am rolled around I was groggy and tired but pulled myself together.

We got up to the race right at 6am for packet pick up and transition set up. There was an Olympic distance and the 70.3 distance but even combined, this race was so small!! There were 105 Olympic finishers and only 65 half ironman finishers. While it was nice to not have things be crazy and overwhelming at race start, a small race can be lonely.

I was snotty mess all morning but didn't want to take any meds because they usually make me goofy. I kept hoping my sinuses would clear up before I entered the water because I didn't know how I would breathe with all the snot. Aside from that, I was fairly calm...until I went to scope out the swim course. It was a triangle that we had to loop two times. Thank goodness for loops, they make everything seem so much easier to me. But still, it looked far. And the water was only 71 degrees thanks to all the rain we've had here so I was worried I was going to be really cold. I kept my composure up until it was time to head over to the water and once that swim cap went on, I started to get choked up from nerves. I couldn't even talk for fear that I would start to cry uncontrollably so I gave Andy a quick kiss goodbye, waved to my parents, and lined up to head in. All the 70.3 racers went off in one wave so I situated myself towards the back of the pack telling myself just to keep it together and get this done.

When the gun went off it didn't take too long for me to find a spot to swim freely but even then, I had trouble getting my breathing under control and feeling comfortable. I kept my eye on my first buoy and kept my breathing to every two strokes. After we passed the first buoy I found some more space and started to feel much better about things. Then came along this idiot who could NOT swim in a straight line. This guy was literally zigzagging all over the place and was going right over top of people. When he hit someone, he'd spot, realize he was swimming perpendicular to the course, straighten out then do it again to the opposite direction. I wanted to kill him. I kept my cool and it took a while but eventually I found a hole and made my way around him. By the time I finished the first loop of the course, I was feeling really good. I knew I could do another loop and I was feeling pretty strong. The water was cold and my Raynauds kicked in a bit, but I just pushed through hoping my body would warm up. Mid way through the second loop when I knew I was going to make it out of the water, I was so excited and happy. I resisted the urge to look at my watch because I thought I was doing pretty well. Pretty much the entire second loop I was doing my normal breathing every 3 strokes (with the occasional breath to cough out the snot that was running down the back of my throat) and every point to point I swam a perfect straight line. Coming up on the last buoy and the beach, I was ecstatic. Just finishing the swim and proving I could do it was an incredible feeling. Looking at my watch though was a completely different feeling...NO WHERE near where I hoped to be. But then again, I'm not really surprised. I've felt this entire training cycle that I wasn't making progress in the water. Lesson learned and I'm going to make some changes and work on this over the winter.

Swim 1:00:43
T1 - 2:55 (changed my shirt and was SO happy I did; much more comfortable with the gross lake off of me)

Heading out for the bike I felt pretty confident. I've ridden this course through training and knew what I was up against with the hills. But with that being said, the first 0.6 miles of the course are a pretty good climb out of the park onto the main road and this section just killed me. Immediately I knew I wasn't 100% and that climb should not have felt as bad as it did. I passed a few people on the climb out of the park but after that, there wasn't really anyone around and it felt just like a normal training ride where I'm by myself. The course was three loops of rolling hills and even on the first loop the hills felt harder than they had on any training ride. I was a snotty mess and was blowing snot rockets every few minutes. On top of it, my lungs hurt and I just felt like I didn't have much gas in the tank. Andy was waiting at the entrance of the park to see me after each loop which was the sweetest thing ever. It was so nice knowing I was going to see him every hour and be able to let him know how I was doing. The first loop was snotty, but uneventful, and I passed Andy on the start of the second with a smile on my face.  Loop two hurt more that I wanted it to and as I approached Andy for the start of loop three, I said, "it might be a while, I'm hurting." During loop three the impending storm clouds in the distance started to roll in and wanting to finish the bike before the storm hit, I gave it everything I had left. As I approached the entrance back into the park, I had to pass the runners who were already on the run portion since we shared the same course. Ugh, that killed me...I knew I was one of the last ones out there. I tried to tell myself that it was more important that I was finishing this leg without any issues and I needed to stay focused. I made my way back down to transition to find Andy and my friend KT waiting there to greet me. It was SO nice seeing them!!

Bike - 3:37:42, ave 15.6 mph (slower than ANY training ride I've done...I'm sort of crushed by this)
T2 - 1:10 (13th fastest T2 time! Hey, at least I'm quick at something!)

I have never been so happy to run before in my life. The swim was stressful because it's just scary as shit to me. Then the bike is stressful because things are out of your control and after flatting out in my last race I was so scared to have that happen again. So when it came time to run, and it was familiar and safe and not scary, I couldn't wait!! I knew my run wouldn't be what I wanted it to be based on how I was feeling, but at this point I knew I was going to finish. I hustled out of T2 and was surprised to see my first mile was an 8:25. I held steady around 8:30 for a little bit until I hit my first climb of the run. It almost stopped me dead in my tracks and rather than killing myself to get up it, I decided to walk and have a gel. The gel totally helped and when I hit the second huge hill of the race, I was able to power up it. The run course was 2 loops so it was nice seeing what I was up against for the second loop but also bad because I was going to have to do these hills more than once.

On the way back to the turn around, a guy I had passed earlier on the big hill ran by me asking what loop I was on. I replied that it was my first to which he held up two fingers and shook them at me as he went by. I laughed out loud knowing the guy had his panties in a bunch because he was passed by a girl earlier and then he yelled back, "I was going to say...I'm on my second, you're going pretty fast." Whatever loser. But aside from this little exchange, I was so impressed by the camaraderie out there on the course. Everyone was giving each other words of encouragement. It wasn't your typical type of road race where you're racing for yourself; everyone knew how hard this was, how much work it took to get there, how important it was to finish and everyone was supporting each others efforts.

Anyway, to finish this up...I made it to the turn around, saw Andy and KT and ensured them I'd be back soon to finish! I was wearing the biggest smile on my face knowing that no matter what happened at this point, I would make it to the end. My pace had completely slowed down because I needed to take walk breaks from time to time. I was drained and snotty and had very little left. But when I was running, my pace was just under 9 minutes. Wish I could have done without the walk breaks, but I needed them. My stomach was not happy the last 2 miles and I wasn't sure if there was going to be an issue, but I managed to run through it determined to get to the finish as soon as I could.

Run - 2:00:46 (ave 9:13)
(placed 32nd on the run)

I took me longer to cross the finish line than I had hoped it would but my ultimate goal was to finish and that's what I did. It was an incredible experience and I'm really shocked and proud that I pulled this off. I've never been a swimmer and I went from zero to 1.2 miles over the course of a summer. My first time on the bike outside since I was a little kid was this past April and I rode a really challenging course for my first half IM. I set my sights on something I wanted and I went out there and I made it happen. I am a 70.3 finisher.

 Total - 6:43:16

47th/65 finishers

6th in AG*

*out of 6...geesh, couldn't there have been 7 women in my AG? ;-)

So, overall, a great day! Sum it up by saying it was fun, hard, long and humbling. I've been blessed with a really good running record and I'm not used to being towards the back of the pack. It was a little hard to swallow at times, but considering I only started with triathlons 3 months ago, I'm proud of myself. There are some things I would have changed from training to race selection, but that's water under the bridge. It's time to think of my next big challenge...

What I DO Have...

I may not have...

• the most fancy bike
• the typical triathlete body
• the best balance dismounting the bike
• the ability to swim fast

But I DO have...

• guts for taking this on in the first place
• endurance that never seems to end
• mental toughness that got me through running 51.2 miles

And come Saturday, I will...

• focus on what I DO have
• smile
• call myself a 70.3 finisher!

I'm feeling ok about Saturday except the weather forecast calling for rain and cooler temps* has me nervous. I really don't want to do the bike portion in the rain. It can downpour as soon as that's over for all I care, just wait till I'm off the damn bike! I also don't do well in cooler temperatures and being wet in cooler temperatures is a recipe for disaster for me and my Raynauds. I'm going to pack a shirt in case I need to change into something dry when I come out of the water and will hope for the best that the rain holds off. Hard to believe that it's only 2 sleeps away...

I went back to read my race report and what I leared from my Ultra and saw this...it was the perfect little reminder.

"You know, I'm not a very deep person, there's really not that much to me. But I'm always looking to find out more about myself. And I did learn one really important thing this past weekend...I learned that not only can I do anything I set my mind to, but I will do it. I am not a quitter and I am more determined than I even thought I was."

*anything under 80 degrees is considered "cooler" for me and causes my Raynauds to flare up. I'm part lizard.

Race Week Already??

Where did the summer go and how is it already race week?? Eeek!! 3 months ago I felt like I had all the time in the world to prepare and now I'm 4 days out from the race and wondering if I even trained at all! I don't know why I feel this way because I followed my schedule to a T. I went to bed most nights while it was still light out and the kids were still playing outside. I woke up at 4:40am every day to put in a few hours of training before work. I toughened up va-jay-jay muscles I didn't even know I had and am now the poster child for chlorine damaged hair. I put in the time whether I feel like I did or not and now I just have to hope that it was enough.

Unfortunately, I woke up last Friday with a sore throat. Something is going around my group and this little secure area we work in with no ventilation doesn't let you escape without catching what everyone else has. Totally sucks. But anyway, after leaving work on Friday I headed straight home for the couch and meds. I had one more long ride to get in Saturday morning and I was determined to get that done. I woke up Saturday, popped some meds, and headed off to the race course. The bike course is 3 HILLY loops so I wanted to do exactly this to prove to myself that I had it in me. I used this ride to practice one more time my bike nutrition and also added in the task of trying to pop Endurolyte capsules while riding. I am so not good with multi tasking on the bike so I really slow down when I go to fumble with a gel, drink, etc. But I managed to pop the capsules out of their little holder with some creative tongue work and didn't lose control. I even mapped out exact spots along the course where it'd be best to eat/drink (i.e. one of the few flat spots, large shoulder) and I have different land marks to focus on to get me through the rough patches. I've ridden the course so many times now that I know all the ins and outs, what to watch out for, and where my most mentally challenging spots will be. Saturday took me a little longer than I would have liked but I'm still not exactly sure how much to push on the bike and on top of it, I was sick. So hopefully come race day, feeling better and the adrenaline, I'll be able to push a little harder.

After this workout, I went straight home and back to the couch where I stayed the entire weekend. I'm feeling a little better but no where near 100%. I missed my workout yesterday and was going to make it up today since today was a rest day, but I might not even bother. A half hour swim and half hour run at this point won't make me any more prepared for Saturday.

So am I prepared?? I know I can swim 1.2 miles (in a pool!). I know I can run a half marathon. And now I know I can ride 56 hilly ass miles. Come Saturday it's time to put all three together and see what I can do. I usually go into every race with some sort of time goal but I've been humbled by this training. That combined with not knowing this race distance at all and so many things being out of my control, I decided that my goal for Saturday is just to finish. To finish and to have fun.