RAGE and Terror

I did it to myself…….normally I am good about doing race research before deciding on a big race (to me this is anything half marathon or Olympic triathlon and longer) but for some reason I decided on the RAGE 70.3 as my spring long course without doing ANY research. I decided I liked the date and going to Vegas in the spring sounded fun so I forked over my money and didn’t think too much about it.

BIG MISTAKE! I had no idea how challenging this course is, there is more than 6,000 ft of climbing on the bike!

I don’t even know how to train for that! And then after thrashing your legs on the bike you get to climb over 2,000 feet in the first six miles of the half marathon.

I honestly feel a little sick about it. I keep trying to tell myself that it is good training for my full ironman. If I can finish this really difficult half that should give me more confidence for Coeur d’Alene, right? Well the lesson is learned here, take it from me kids ALWAYS research a race before signing up. I see some major hill training in my future *barf*

Have you ever signed up for a race before knowing anything about it? Did you survive?

Ironman Challenge

As the Holiday Booty Buster Challenge winds down I find that I will miss it. I like having challenges, a little extra motivation never hurts! So I was excited when I saw that my gym (24 hour fitness) is hosting an Ironman competition. According to the instructions we have from January 1st until February 15th to complete the full ironman distances. What could be more perfect for me while I am training for Coeur d'Alene?!?

Also you can enter as many times as you like as long as you swim 2.4 miles (or 84.5 laps), ride 112 miles on the bike (each 60 minute spin class counts as 12 miles) and 26.2 miles by foot (running, walking, elliptical). I hope to complete at least 3 "Ironmans". I have already almost completed the swim and run portion but I think the bike will take me two weeks to complete.

Do you like competitions like these? Would you participate in an "Ironman Competition" at your gym?

Also I have added two races to my 2012 calendar. The first is Aimee's fault, she posted about doing the Greenland Trail 25k on May 5th and it sounds like too much fun!

So I hope to see you there Aimee!!!

The second race is the Wild West Relay

The WWR is a 200 mile relay on August 3rd and 4th. Cory and I were invited to join a team today and we are SO in!!! That will be my second relay in less than a month since I am going to run the EPIC relay with a team from work in July. Now I just need someone to invite me to run Hood to Coast (please)!

Time to race!

Report coming soon.

Colorado Marathon Race recap

Running my first marathon with my husband was an amazing experience, it was harder than I imagined but also one of the most perfect days of my life. I spent the first two thirds of the race feeling so grateful to be running a marathon. I was supposed to run a marathon on my 30th birthday back in September but was sidelined by an injury and was devastated so just getting to the start line was a victory for me this time around. To be honest I am disappointed in my time but I am trying to look on the bright side that it is a starting point that I can try to improve on in the future.

The day before was a little frantic and left us running around like chickens with our heads cut off, lesson learned there is that we need to plan the day before big races. I did find time for some proper fueling:

Thanks Cory for taking such a flattering picture of me, maybe you shouldn't take pictures while driving.

The race is held in Fort Collins about an hour north of Denver and since we had to pick up our race packets the day before we spent the night at my brother's house. The expo was pretty small but I was excited to get my number and shirt.

After laying out all my gear, I went to bed early in anticipation of our 3:30 am wake up call. It was cold and dark but at least we had luxury tour buses.

Two years ago my brother ran this race and he had to ride up the canyon in a school bus. It was colder than I thought it would be but we were happy that there wouldn't be a large temperature swing between the start and finish.

We arrived at the start when it was still dark and cold, there were plenty of bathrooms but it would have been a good idea for us to have something to sit on. It was too cold to sit on the ground so we stood around getting stiff.

Quickly we were on our way running out of the canyon following the Poudre River.

For over the first half of the run I was so happy and grateful to be running and wasn't wishing the miles away.

About mile twenty my IT bands started to really hurt and I knew I just needed to put my head down and tough out the last six miles.

I was so happy to turn onto the road that took us into downtown and to the finish

Official time was 4:59:13, lots of room for improvement but I did it and I am so grateful that my legs took me the full distance.

I am also very grateful to Cory who was there with me every step of the way. He could have an this race much faster but stuck with me and was my personal photographer. Thanks babe!

Boulder Spring Half Marathon Race Report

I had a great race, third half marathon in 2:10:30, over 13 minutes faster than the one I ran last year for a PR. I am surprised that I feel as good as I do because I didn't execute the race well at all. I will take it as lessons learned and hope to do better at my full marathon in May. As always I laid out my gear the night before, the forecast called for high 3os to low 40s with a chance of rain or snow. I decided to wear my Mizuno tights (LOVE these), REI long sleeved tech shirt, Adidas running jacket and RMTC visor.I packed gloved and a headband but chose not to wear them. I also packed two packets of sharkies and one GU, this was a mistake but more on that later. This morning we woke up at 4:30, I was so tired and didn't want to get out of bed. The only thing motivating me to move was the promise of lots of hot coffee. I stumbled around, drank two buckets of coffee then Bailey and Winston helped my get ready.I ate a cliff bar and a banana before leaving the house, we got to Boulder Reservoir by 7am for a 8am start time. We took our time visiting the bathrooms, warming up and finally lined up at 7:55 and waited.....20 minutes. This is my only complaint about this race, I have no idea why we started 15 minutes late. This was the best supported race I have ever ran there were aid stations everywhere, on both sides of the street. Each station had water, gatorade, GU gels, bananas and tons of friendly volunteers. There were also lots of volunteers with radios to help any athletes that needed it. Most of the race was on dirt country roads, with a few miles on paved roads. The start was pretty congested and didn't open up until about three quarters of a mile in. Here are our splits:

Mile 1: 10:07 Caught behind a bunch of people

Mile 2: 9:40 Skipped water station, bad idea...

Mile 3: 10:06

Mile 4: 10:11 started to feel hungry because I didn't take a gel before starting, what was I thinking? but I decided to wait to take my gel, again, what was I thinking, the aid stations had GUs I could have gotten more.

Mile 5: 10:27 feeling tired, low blood sugar

Mile 6: 10:11

Mile 7: 10:42 finally took my gel and drank more water

Mile 8: 9:25 feeling much better

Mile 9: 9:17

Mile 10: 9:45 starting to feel tired and hungry again, did I take a gel? No...brilliant.

Mile 11: 9:42

Mile 12 and .1: 10:00ish Cory forgot to hit his watch right when we crossed the line Official time 2:09:30 with 9:53 minute miles. I am happy with this overall time but wonder what time I could have ran if I had not lost my mind during the race. I know better than to make all these mistakes. I blame it on getting 2 hours of sleep on Friday night and just being too tired to think straight. I am getting closer to my sub two hour goal, maybe this summer or fall?? =)Happy to be done, we both really like the medals.We hung around for a while after the race and even got massages. Before leaving I made friends with Kona, a really sweet Sheep Dog. Headed home for ice baths, showers, recovery beer and relaxing. It's been a good day.

Snowman Stampede Race Report

Yesterday I ran the Snowman Stampede 10 mile race in Littleton Colorado. This was the third part of the Winter Distance Series, that consisted of three races one in December, January and February. For each race you can choose between two different lengths. The December race has a 5k and 10k, January has a 5mi and 10mi and February has a 5mi and 10mi option as well.

I like this series, it keeps me racing during the "off" months and a lengths I don't race a lot. You can run the races individually (last year I only ran Snowman Stampede) or save money by singing up for all three. If you sign up for the series you can choose from the short (5k, 5mi,5mi) mid (5k, 5mi, 10mi) or long lengths (10k, 10mi, 10mi). I ran the mid distance because I liked that the length changed each time. The races all run along the Platte River Trail south of Denver, for the shorter races this was fine because they started early and weren't on the trail for very long. For the 10 mile race it became an issue. Because the races didn't start until 10am and were on the trail for much longer cyclist and other trail users were on the trail as well. This became a problem when poor cyclist were trying to pass the hundreds of runners and calling to pass on the left but the runners either couldn't hear because of their headphones or just wouldn't move over. I think one of the most popular bike paths in Denver might not be the best choice for a race especially on a warm, sunny day in February.

It was a beautiful day and I had a good(ish) race. My legs were not completely fresh still after our 16 miler on Monday and the last few milers were definitely slowed by the quarter sized blister on the bottom of my foot (want to see pictures, I seriously took some). I am ok with my time of 1:35:56 with an average of 9:35 minute miles. Cory did GREAT with a time of 1:14:something and a 7:24 minute mile (how did he get SO fast)

Even though I am not super happy about my time I did go back to see what I ran the 5 mile portion of this race in last year and found that my pace this year for a 10 mile was faster than last years 5 mile pace (9:42 mm) so I am getting faster and I am happy about that.

The swag for these races isn't spectacular, for the first two races we received cotton t-shirts but for the last one we got a cute tech shirt. Overall I think these races are well ran and nice to do in the winter months.

Bad Couple of Days

First off thanks to all that wished me luck on today’s race, I am ashamed to say I did not race.

Here’s the story…..on Thursday my meeting in New York finished up with a nice lunch and some free time to walk through the American Museum of Natural History. Around 2pm we walked back to our hotel to grab our bags and meet our car to get to the airport. At the airport I decided to grab a sandwich and some pretzels to have on the flight as dinner. As I waited my stomach started to hurt and cramp a bit. I didn’t think much of it, I figured my body was just sick of being off schedule and not eating what I normally eat.

(Best Cupcake Ever)

As it got closer to boarding time I started to feel nauseous and I started to worry. I got to my window seat in the very back of the plane and thought I would be ok if I just drank my water and didn’t eat anything until I got home. As we were taking off I knew I was in trouble, I will spare you the details but it was the longest four and a half hours of my life. I have not been so happy to get off a plane in my life. I am still not sure if I had food poisoning or a stomach flu but I have no energy and still can’t eat normally.

I was so sad this morning not to be able to race, this is the second time I have had to stand on the sidelines to cheer Cory on at a race that I should have been running. In August I was injured and couldn’t run the Georgetown to Idaho Springs half marathon that both Cory and I had signed up for. It was fun to cheer Cory on but watching people race when I couldn’t just added salt to the wound. Cory encouraged me to stay home and rest but I didn’t want to pass up the chance to support him and see him put up an awesome time.

(35 minute clock time for 5 miles, I am sure that his chip time is even faster)

Hoping to get back to normal quickly!

Have you ever been sidelined from a race? Did you/would you go anyway?