TheBeckmans.com

2011 Ironman Boulder 70.3

gaye — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:51:00 GMT

I should probably preface this race report with a disclaimer that I knew darn well going into it that I hadn't trained as much as I would have liked. I was pretty focused on the Courage Classic and that whole century ride thing that I kind of let the whole running thing slide a bit. And swimming...well, you know me and swimming. :-D Even though I *was* trying to get at least some semblance of half-marathon training in, life was getting in the way and throwing me curveballs (like ridiculous thunderstorms smack in the middle of long runs). With the result that my longest run of training was 10.75 miles. At sea level. Oh well, what are ya gonna do? One of the best things about this race for me was the fact that, for the first time ever, my family was going to be able to see me race. My sister and brother-in-law were out visiting from Michigan, so they brought all the kids (Tyler and my niece and nephew, Kallie and Kade) up to the Res for some beach time and cheering!

Amy and I in transition

Prerace: As usual, I had a less than stellar night's sleep, tossing and turning for a few hours before finally falling asleep to an anxiety-riddled race-related dream. The alarm went off at 3:30 and I was out the door by 4:15. Which, you know, is just ridiculously early. Nonetheless, I was pulling into the reservoir before 5 (when transition opened), and I was not even in the first several hundred people there. Ah, type A triathletes. I got a pretty decent transition spot and spread out to save room for my friend Amy, who was doing her first 70.3. We got our spots set up, hit the portopotty (where we ran into Sonja and took a few pictures!), and headed out when they closed transition. Transition closed at 6:20 and our wave wasn't until 7:15, so we had a while to wait. We watched the pro start and were amazed at seeing how far out in front of the pack Andy Potts was. He did the 1.2 mile swim in 22 minutes! He was a FULL BUOY ahead of the rest of the field. Ridiculous!

With Sonja in the portopotty line :-)

The swim: Amy and I had split so she could go to the portopotty again and I could get a quick swim in just to get wet, so I lined up in my wave by myself. I was getting nervous because Amy was nowhere to be seen, but just before they led us down to the water, she showed up...apparently the potty lines were too long! A quick hug and good luck wishes, and off we went. I was just praying not to have a repeat of the panic attack from my last tri (where I probably lost at least 8-10 minutes trying to calm down). I tried to take my time and keep my breathing under control, and it seemed to work. I got into my groove pretty quickly and felt fairly comfortable the whole swim. I will say that there felt like there was a lot more contact in the water than normal. I got kicked and punched several times, not really normal for a swim of this distance where people get pretty spread out. Other than that, the swim was pretty uneventful other than some minor goggle leakage that slowed me down for a minute or two. I came out of the water with no idea how I had done, other than that it felt pretty decent.

T1: Still a handful of bikes left on my age group's rack, so at least I wasn't the last one out of the water! I felt really slow, but it wasn't too bad according to the results. It's a long run from the beach to transition, so I must have actually had a fairly good transition. Wetsuit off, used inhaler, helmet, sunglasses, shoes, and race number on, and away I went.

Tired already? But you're not even out to Jay Rd yet!

The bike: My legs felt tired right out of the gate. Not a fabulous start. The first 5-6 miles out of the res are uphill, and I felt it. I was hoping to be able to catch Amy (who I knew smoked me out of the water) fairly quickly, but she had a pretty good lead on me. IM makes you wear your race number on your back during the bike (most tris don't), which is kind of nice because the bibs had our names on them, so you could see who you were passing (and say hi if you knew them!). In one stretch on the backside of the first loop, I ran into three people that I knew within 5 minutes, which was funny. And cool! Of course, two of them were guys who were blowing me away...but still, nice to see friendly faces out there. I really thought I would kill this bike, considering my training this summer, but my legs just didn't have it for whatever reason. The temperature started cranking up during the second loop. I could tell it was going to be bad news for the run, with how fast it was heating up. It had actually been fairly cool at the start of the race, but it was like someone flipped the on switch to the oven. Ugh. About 8 miles into the second loop, I finally caught Amy. We chatted for a minute, with her doing a lot of cussing and threatening to return her bike to the shop because (in her opinion) it wasn't making her go fast. :-P I passed her, then she passed me back for a minute before I caught her and left her behind. My goal was to put as much distance on her on the bike as possible, since I knew she was going to kill me on the run. As I made the turn back into the reservoir, I saw my family on the sideline, cheering for me, and it was AWESOME. I've never had family at a race before (other than when Brian brought Tyler to my first 70.3), and I loved it.

Heading back into transition, super happy to have family cheering for me!

T2: Feet out of the shoes, off the bike, and OW. My left foot was really sore. My toe had been numb/painful for most of the ride, which is kind of unusual. Not that it was numb/painful, but that it lasted so long. It usually lasts maybe 15-20 miles, then subsides, but not this time. The run back to my transition spot was kind of gimpy. I racked my bike, grabbed my visor, inhaler, and sport beans, shoes on, and ran to the portopotty. Along the way, I realized I had forgotten my endurolytes (electrolyte capsules), but fortunately, my bike was mostly on the way to the run out from the portopotty.

The run: Here's where the ugly really reared its head. I actually didn't feel TOO terrible heading out of transition, but I didn't feel great, either. I tried to grab a sponge at the aid station right out of transition and totally dropped it. A super nice guy right behind me GAVE ME HIS and went back for another one. Can you believe that?? And then, to boot, it turns out that he's a friend of Sonja's, which I didn't know until Sonja tagged me in one of his Facebook photos...how random is that?!

Here we are...thanks for the sponge, Bret!

Anyway...down the reservoir road (where the fam was waiting to cheer again, yay!) and out onto the dirt road around the res. Have I mentioned before how there is ZERO shade on this run? Mile one was a 10:30 mile, and it would be the only one under 12 minute pace for the day. Last year I was able to do this run by only walking the aid stations (stretched way out, but still!). Not so much this year. I honestly don't know if I blocked out how hot it was last year, or if it really was that much worse this year, but it was brutal. I think it was worse this year, but I have no proof of that. What I do know is that on the backside of the loop where we headed back into the reservoir, the wind kicked up. On the one hand, it helped keep the temperature down a tiny bit, but it also gave some serious resistance. At one point, I was running along the dam and I honestly thought I was going to get blown off. And not into the water, which probably would have felt good. It was somewhere around here that Amy caught me and left me in her dust (literally). As I finished up the first loop, I really, really did NOT want to stay left at the split to go out on the second loop. But I did.

Do I really have to go around AGAIN?

My sister and nephew were along the rail for a quick cheer as I headed back out for my second loop. As I went through the aid station at the transition area, I started chatting with a couple of women, and ended up staying with one for the entire second loop. Heather may have just saved my life. We decided to stick together, and that was probably the best decision I made all day. We run/walked 6.5 miles together, and we were totally on the same page. One of us would decide a landmark that we were going to start running at or run to, and the other one would be like "you totally just read my mind" :-D. I can't even remember what we talked about that whole time, but we chatted most of the hour and a half we were out there together. I was terrified that she would decide she needed to go faster at some point and I would be alone again, but she didn't! Meanwhile, the sun kept beating down on us and the wind pummeled us. I looked down at my hands with about 2 miles to go and my fingers were so swollen that I couldn't bend them. Yikes. My legs actually didn't feel that bad and my lungs were fine, but I had NO go in me. It didn't help that my foot was still hurting and my other foot was starting to get the 70.3 blister (remember last year's giant golf ball blister? yeah, that one). But really, it was just that I had no energy. I was still hoping to make it under 7 hours, but a 15 minute mile and a 14 minute mile pretty much killed that off. Heather really wanted to get under 7:30 (she started 35 minutes ahead of me), and our heat-addled brains figured that we should be able to do that one at least, and we did. The last half-mile was awful. I wanted to walk SO bad, but we had made a deal to run it in, and I wasn't going to renege and make Heather feel like she needed to walk, too, and make her miss her 7:30. So I sucked it up. As I rounded the corner to the finish chute, I saw Tyler and the rest of my family, and I got a little teary. Heather out-kicked me, but we crossed the finish line within a couple of seconds of each other and shared a high-five and a hug. And last names, so we could find each other on Facebook later, which we did!

Almost there!

We made it!!!

One more 70.3 in the books!

Post-race: Reunited with the fam and we headed over to the food tent, which was completely picked over. All they had left was oranges, bananas, cookies, bagels, and stuff to make your own PB&J. REALLY? Come on, Ironman! That's it?! I know I'm slow, but I paid just as much to do your race as the fast people, so it would be nice if you still had some decent food left for the slower racers. Especially considering that there were at least 150-200 people behind me. Ridiculous. None of the offerings sounded remotely good, but I grabbed some cookies and fruit just to have something to eat. We wandered to try to find some shade, and ran into Sonja and her family and Hillary and Ben (who gave me some awesome cheers out on the course and took a couple of the photos above!). Awards were just about to start, and Sonja won her age group and got second amateur woman, so I got to sit in the shade and cheer for her, which was cool. Yay, Sonja! Eventually, I got it together enough to head for transition, where I finally saw Amy for the first time since she passed me on the run. She ended up having a (relatively) great run and finished about 11 minutes ahead of me. I'm so proud of her...two years and a week after being diagnosed with cancer, she conquers the 70.3 distance, how awesome is that?!

The results:
Swim: 54:13 (4+ minutes faster than last year!)
T1: 3:01
Bike: 3:08:11 (17.9 mph; almost exactly the same as last year, bummer)
T2: 3:15 (with a potty stop? Really? Not bad!)
Run: 2:54:29 (13:24 pace?!)
Total: 7:03:05

My slowest 70.3 to date, 12 minutes slower than last year, but only a minute slower than my first 70.3. I *am* disappointed, but not terribly so. I knew this was going to be rough, given my (lack of) training, but I was still hoping for better. I really think I should have been able to get under 7 hours, but oh well. This was about survival, not a PR. And of course, I'm starting to feel like I have something to prove with this race. Yikes. Will I do it again next year? I'm not entirely sure, but I'm definitely not willing to rule it out.

Being a spectathlete is HARD!

Courage Classic, part three: the big finish?

gaye — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:30:00 GMT

I should probably admit up front that after the century ride on day two, day three of the Courage Classic was pretty anti-climactic. It wasn't necessarily a letdown, but by this point, everyone was pretty (very?) sore and tired and there was a lot of "let's just get it done" attitude. We got started a little later than planned on our third and final day thanks to needing to be packed up and out of our condo before heading out on our bikes. Nonetheless, it was still relatively early when we got rolling.

Day three's route was from Copper to Leadville over Fremont Pass, with an optional loop around Turquoise Lake once we got to Leadville. I was, quite honestly, surprised at how good I felt when we started riding. Tired? Definitely. Sore? Heck yeah. But it felt doable. As we headed out of Copper and toward Leadville, it was a crazy sight to see the never-ending line of cyclists on the highway. Day one had some of that, but it didn't seem like it was to the same extent, and day two had been relatively quiet since we never saw the majority of riders who didn't do the century. I was pretty shocked at how careless many of the cyclists were. The highway from Copper to Leadville has little to no shoulder and lots of traffic, yet people were pulling WAY out into the lane to pass without checking for cars coming up from behind or even warning the people that they were passing. Common sense, people! Checking for traffic before passing, and a simple "on your left" goes a LONG way toward being both courteous and safe. [/rant]

It was clear pretty early that our group probably wasn't really going to stick together for the day's ride. As previously mentioned, a lot of people just wanted to get done as quickly as possible, which was fine, but my legs just didn't have it in them to go even remotely fast. Megan and one of the other students, Jennifer, and I stuck together for most of the ride since we were around the same speed. The ride up Fremont Pass seemed never-ending. And halfway through, I felt a mosquito bite on my butt start itching. Really? I mean, I know the mosquitos are bad this year, but did it really have to bite me in the middle of a climb in a rather embarrassing spot to scratch? Stoopid mosquitos. Little did I know that it was just the beginning, and that since mosquitos can bite THROUGH bike shorts, I would have a lovely array at the end of the day! Once again, though, the early morning crispness and the gorgeous Colorado wildflowers were totally soul-soothing, even as my legs were screaming loudly in protest.

We stopped at the top of Fremont Pass to semi-regroup. And take the obligatory bike-over-the-head-on-top-of-Fremont-Pass-Photo. :-D

From Fremont Pass, it was time to let it rip downhill again. WOOHOO. I do so love descending! Before long, we were on the outskirts of Leadville. Stefan and another team member, Jay, were pulled over in a parking lot to wait for John and Celia (our noble leaders--and Stefan's parents), so I took the excuse to pull over and rest. I mean, wait for Megan and Jennifer. And promptly crashed. From pretty much standing still. Yeah, that's how I roll. I have yet to have a "real" crash, but I have now managed to crash twice in the past month while not really moving. Making it even more embarrassing? The fact that there were 15 or 20 other cyclists standing in the parking lot and they all witnessed my less-than-graceful fall.

Now you might be asking yourself why I'm admitting to such an embarrassing event when I probably could have kept it pretty quiet...the answer? Because I got the world's most kick-ass band-aid at the aid station, so I have to show it off! :-D

I will say one good thing (besides the awesome band-aid!) about crashing (falling off) your bike on day three of a three day ride...the pain in my ankle, hip, and hand from falling almost completely took my mind off my sore legs and butt for SEVERAL miles!

Just after the aid station where I got patched up was the turn-off for the Turquoise Lake loop. Although it was tempting to turn left and head to the finish, there was really no other option but to go right to the lake. I was extremely glad that I had ridden around the lake on a team training ride a few weeks earlier so that I knew what to expect. And what to expect was a rather significant climb. They should really call it a pass, because it sure feels like one! Up, up, up we went. There was a lot of camaraderie in the group of riders that I was with during the climb, which made it slightly easier. And I couldn't help but think, even as my legs were screaming at me, about the kids at Children's who aren't able to ride a bike. And those who CAN ride a bike because of the work that they do at Children's. And I kept plugging up the hill. Because, really...as John pointed out as we were starting up the climb...what's a little leg soreness and pain compared to the pain of going through chemo? After all, THAT is the reason we all did this ride.

The remainder of the trip around the lake was pretty uneventful. It is truly a beautiful ride, and I really want to spend some more time in that area (note to self: try to find some cheap camping gear!). We stopped one last time just past the dam to regroup and potentially wait for John and Celia, but ultimately decided to just push on through and get 'er done. Compared to the previous day's finish, crossing the finish line at the end was kind of anti-climactic, but it was cool to hear our friends who had already finished cheering for us, and to be given our finisher's medal. And just a few minutes after we finished, we got to watch Team Courage, made up of current and former Children's patients, cross the finish line. Yeah, I teared up. It was pretty emotional.

3 days, 200+ miles, my first century, a crash, two very sore legs, a bazillion mosquito bites, and an incredible feeling of accomplishment

Fabulous Team AHEC ladies: Me, Jean, Amy, Cindy, and Megan

I want to say THANK YOU again to all of my fabulous sponsors. You all took my lofty goal of $1000 and smashed it! As of today, I have raised $1260 for the Children's Hospital Foundation thanks to you. And if you wanted to donate, but haven't done so yet...it's not too late! You can still donate through the end of the month at my personal fundraising page. I am so proud to be a member of Team AHEC, as we were the number 8 fundraising team overall for the Courage Classic! Our team captain, John, was one of the top 100 fundraisers, and there were several of us who raised over $1000. To date, Team AHEC has raised over $31,000!

The Courage Classic was such an amazing experience. I'm so grateful to AHEC for making it possible for poor (aka broke) health professions students to take part! I can say with confidence that this was not a one and done event for me. I really hope to be able to make it an annual occurrence. The people I met, the friends I got to know better, the beautiful rides, and the joy of doing something to help others all combined to make one phenomenal weekend.

What's next? Well, the Boulder 70.3 (that's a half-ironman) is on Sunday. I'm desperately undertrained for the swim and the run, but hey! My bike should kick butt! Seriously, though, this one's going to be all about survival this year. I'm excited to have family in town to come out and cheer for me for the first time ever, so I hope I don't keel over somewhere on the backside of Boulder Res in the 90+ heat and disappoint them! ;-)

Thanks for reading through my long-winded saga! I know I've said it before, but I hope to keep the blog a little more regular in the future, although I make no guarantees once school starts back up!

Courage Classic, part two: the Century!

gaye — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 01:42:00 GMT

Day two was an early start...extra early for me, even. As many of you know, I'm a bit OCD about numbers. As in, if I'm out for a 5 mile run and I hit my driveway at 4.97 miles, I will run past it to get that extra .03. It's ok to go OVER on miles, but not under! :-p So, when I heard that this year's Courage Classic century route was going to be short of 100 miles due to a construction detour, well...you can probably figure out where I'm going with this. After all, I promised my sponsors that if they helped me raise $1000, I would ride 100 miles, and anything less would just feel like cheating, ya know? Not to mention that I REALLY wanted to see my Garmin tick over to 1-0-0!

For some reason, I couldn't convince anybody else to ride the extra make-up miles with me, so I decided the best course of action was just to get up early and ride those extra miles before we got started. Especially since I had a pretty good feeling that I was not going to want to turn around and ride back out onto the course at the end of the ride when the finish line was in sight. I left the dark and silent condo around 5:45 am with the goal of riding 8-9 miles before meeting the group for a 6:30 start. I rode out of the condo and decided to ride a few loops of the base area, from the highway up the bike path and back. It was just the teeniest bit chilly on a bike that early. Oh, who am I kidding? It was fricking freezing! 8.5 miles later, I was headed back to the condo, where the group wasn't quite ready to roll yet. My hands were so cold that I had them stuck inside the toaster oven trying to warm up and still couldn't feel anything. Needless to say, I was not quite super enthusiastic about heading back out into the cold.

As soon as everyone was ready, we rolled down toward the start line and out for the "official" beginning of the day's ride. There were several team members tackling the century ride, but our little group consisted of myself, Amy, Jean, and Stefan. The ride through the canyon down toward Frisco was one of the coldest rides I've ever been on. The sun wasn't quite up yet, at least in the canyon, and we were going downhill, making it that much worse. We stopped at the first aid station in Frisco mostly just to warm hands up enough to be able to brake. And to get my frozen contact lens unstuck from my eyeball! The ride through Frisco and around the reservoir was beautiful in the early morning. I wish I had taken some pictures, but we were pretty focused on taking care of business since we knew we had a long day ahead of us.

Just after skirting the north end of Lake Dillon, we hit the turnoff for the century route and headed north through Silverthorne toward Ute Pass. As we made our way out of Silverthorne, we saw the eagle's nest, and even better...the bald eagle was perched on top of it! Way cool! I've seen the nest several times, but had never seen an eagle in it before. This section flew by, as we semi-pacelined up highway 9. I was feeling pretty good about myself until we got absolutely blown by by a group of about 20 guys in a paceline. Hmph. In no time at all, we were at the bottom of Ute Pass, and the fun and games were over!

Comparatively speaking, I guess Ute Pass wasn't all that bad, but it was definitely a pretty good climb. And it was starting to get hot. Here's the thing about Ute Pass...it apparently wasn't good enough for the route designers to take us UP the pass. Nope, we had to go up, over, and down. Just to get to turn around and climb back up again! And here's a big fat virtual "pffffffttttt" to the guy who passed me on the way up (the first time) and claimed that the climb back up was shorter and easier. LIAR. Best part of going over the top? The cherries at the aid station at the bottom. They pretty much rocked. Otherwise, I could have done with some flat miles elsewhere rather than that extra climb! I did make a friend on the way back up to the top, and it was great to chat with someone for a mile or so, since everyone else in the group had spread out, and I was way back in the back. Soon enough, we made it to the top (AGAIN) and stopped for a few minutes to soak in the spectacular view.

The WI boys (I think their names were Nick and Jeff?), Stefan, me, Amy, and Jean on top of Ute Pass. The second time. (Yes, I'm the only one not in my team jersey. It was hot, so I stuffed it in the back pocket of my tank. Sue me. :-P)

The ride DOWN the pass was AWESOME. I mean, seriously. The only reason I ride UP hills is so I get to ride DOWN them. I love flying down a mountain, and the pavement on Ute Pass was sweet and smooth, with little to no traffic.

After the pass, we headed back into Silverthorne the way we came. I was still feeling relatively good at this point, all things considered. We were still kind of pacelining, and I was even leading for a good portion. Just before we hit the aid station on the way back into town, my Garmin died. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I knew the battery had been getting sketchy, but I was really hoping it might survive the day. I mentioned how I really wanted to see it display 100, right? Sad face. It died 66 miles in, and I was destined to be Garmin-less for the remainder of the day. Which kind of killed me. For the rest of the day, I had no real idea how far I had to go to get anywhere, which was really mentally challenging.

And then....the bonk. Wow, that was ugly. As we were heading into Dillon, I just ran out of juice. We hit an uphill section and suddenly, I was just done. The group pulled farther and farther ahead of me, but there was nothing I could do, I just couldn't keep up. Amy stopped at the bottom of Swan Mountain Road to take a picture and I stopped with her and finished off the sport beans I had with me, in hopes that they would get me up and over Swan Mountain, our last big climb of the day.

Amy and I at the bottom of Swan Mountain. Don't let the smile fool you, I was not doing well here.

I won't lie: Swan Mountain was brutal. It was hot. It was a tough climb. My legs were tired and sore, and I had zero energy. There were tears. At one point in the middle, I tried to distract myself with the beauty of the wildflowers and the mountains, but that only helped for a minute or so. I stopped a few times on the last section up to the top. And when I finally made it to the aid station, I proceeded to inhale about six nutrigrain bars, three granola bars, and a ton of gatorade. Lesson learned. Even if the offerings at the aid station don't sound that great to you, EAT when you're doing a century ride! Breakfast and a banana and a few sport beans are apparently only good for about 70 miles. :-/

The upside of making it up Swan Mountain was another fun descent down and on into Breckenridge for the lunch stop. There was some welcome shade waiting for us, as well as one of the best-tasting cans of Coke I have ever had. There were mixed reviews on the lunch offerings, but my post-bonk tastebuds thought the stir-fry beef and rice tasted pretty darn good!

After lunch, we only had about 15 miles to go back to Copper Mountain. Sidebar: 85ish miles into a century ride is WAY too late for a lunch stop, in my opinion; I guess it's what works best for the 35 and 50 mile routes, but I wish they would have had something more substantial earlier for the century riders. 15 miles. Piece of cake, right? Actually, the first several miles were pretty good. I was definitely rejuvenated after getting some food into me. That lasted until the path turned away from the highway and into a section that, while beautiful, had some small hills that were about all I could handle at this point in the ride. One last aid station (where I sent a text to Megan to alert her that we were on our way in, so she could get some pictures with my camera) and it was time for the last section back up the canyon to Copper. Normally, I don't think this section is too hard, but at this point in the day, it was one of the toughest rides I've ever done. A long, slow, gradual uphill. It was hot, and I desperately wanted to just jump into the river, but that was going to have to wait till after the finish. I was SO tired at this point, and I kept thinking how glad I was to have already done the extra miles that morning and not have those still ahead of me. Reinforced by the fact that as we got close to Copper, we saw some of our teammates heading back down the path toward us, trying to get their hundred in!

As we came off the bike path and headed into the resort, we pulled over to the side so that we could wait for teammates (and alert those who didn't ride the century to get themselves and their cameras to the finish area). After we regrouped, we rolled down the road together. I don't think I even have the words to describe the finish. It was, quite simply, one of the most amazing feelings of my life, crossing the finish line with 14 of my teammates, having just finished my first century ride. The fact that we rode in as a team was phenomenal. I'm sure people would have cheered for us anyway, but the sight of us all rolling in together produced a pretty big ovation that gave me chills. I had tears in my eyes for the second time that day, but this time, they were happy tears.

Here comes Team AHEC!

Amy and Jean

Yeah! We made it!

I think we had 24 members of Team AHEC complete the century ride. That's almost half of our team, pretty awesome! And, I'm happy to say, that I was not the only one crazy enough to add extra miles to make sure it really was a century (although I WAS the only one crazy--or was it crazy smart--enough to do it before the ride officially started!).

12 of our Team AHEC members who crossed the finish line together...we lost a couple before the picture

Happy century riders!

After another blissful dip in the ice-cold stream, we got cleaned up for our team dinner. The director of AHEC traditionally treats the team to dinner on day two. We weren't totally sure what to expect but were very pleasantly surprised with a three course meal, including a choice of steak, salmon, or chicken. Our table of students put some serious hurt on the HUGE steaks that we were served. I think we had 8 girls order steak, and 6 of us demolished them and totally cleaned our plates. We earned it, right?!

Best. Steak. EVER.

Still to come: day three. Mosquito bites, crashes, some more gorgeous views, and an incredible feeling of accomplishment! Thanks for reading!

Courage Classic, part one

gaye — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:51:00 GMT

Um, hi. How's it going? [sheepish grin] Has it really been nine months since I posted here? Whoops. Sorry about that. Life's been a little hectic with the whole school thing. And the job thing. And the attempting to train thing. Never fear, though, I have things to post about! That are going to take me at least a few posts to cover thoroughly! There's been lots going on with both myself and Tyler, but I'll have to try to do a catch-up post on that later, because the next few are going to be all about the Courage Classic!

See, a few months back, my friend and classmate Megan asked if I would be interested in riding the Courage Classic this summer. The Courage Classic is a three day ride in the mountains that benefits Children's Hospital. The persuading factor? As students at the medical campus, we could sign up to ride with Team AHEC (Area Health Education Centers) and they would pay not only our registration and lodging, but some of our meals, too. And we would get a free jersey! Our only obligations were the $300 fundraising requirement and a couple of meals. Sign me up, right?! I had to wait to make sure that my mental health clinical placement would allow me to do the ride, but as soon as I knew it was all clear, I signed up. And we persuaded our friends and classmates Amy and Jean to sign up, as well.

And then...I had a brilliant idea. See, there's an optional century route on day two of the ride. And I've always kind of wanted to do a century, but was a little scared. And a century on day two of a three day ride? A three day ride in the MOUNTAINS, that involves, you know...like, climbing and stuff? Crazy, right? So, I figured I'd put out a bit of a challenge. The whole purpose of this ride is, after all, to raise money for the Children's Hospital Foundation to support kids at Children's and their families. So why not tie that in? I emailed friends, family, and acquaintances galore and threw down the gauntlet...if I could raise $1000, I would ride the century. And you all came through, raising the money in a ridiculously short amount of time. Century ride? I guess so!

The next step? Training! Our team captain (John, a professor in the medical school) and his wife (Celia, also a professor in the medical school) organized several group rides to get us ready for our three day tour. We did a few training rides on our own, too (Amy and Cindy--a new friend from the master's in public health program--learned the hard way not to trust me to plan our route, ha!).

A training ride up Lookout Mountain with Megan and Amy

Cindy and Amy, still smiling on Little Cub...they weren't smiling 20 miles of climbing later :-D

At Turquoise Lake on a group training ride

All too soon, and with not nearly enough training, it was time to head up to the mountains for the Courage Classic. We loaded up our cars with bikes and breakfast burritos and headed up to the mountains.

5 bikes on top of a car!

Why yes, that IS a lot of breakfast burritos!

We woke early on Saturday morning to make the drive from Copper to Leadville. It was a little chilly, but a beautiful morning. Members of the team gathered at the start line for a photo op before making our way out of town to Tennessee Pass. Did I mention that Team AHEC was over 50 members strong?

Team AHEC at the start of the 2011 Courage Classic

Day one's ride was one of the most beautiful rides that I've ever done. And that's saying something. I wish I had the words to do it justice, and unfortunately, I didn't stop to take any pictures. The wildflowers are simply spectacular this year, and the combination of the mountains, the wildflowers, the early morning crispness, the birds singing...ahhh. What an amazing ride. Before we knew it (literally, only 10 miles into the ride), we were at the summit of Tennessee Pass.

Megan, Amy, me, Jean, and Cindy at (duh) Tennessee Pass

From there, we cruised downhill for awhile before tackling another climb up Battle Mountain. The scenery in this section was just gorgeous. If you've never explored this area of Colorado, you really should. Holy moley, is it beautiful. In what seemed like no time at all, we were flying downhill into Minturn and on into Vail for the lunch stop. By this point, it was starting to heat up, so we tried not to take TOO much time at lunch, since we knew we had a long, hot climb up Vail Pass ahead of us. Megan had her first flat of the day just outside of the lunch stop, and I timed Amy's tire-changing skills (7 minutes and 50 seconds, for the record, pretty darn good!). Next up: Vail Pass. Phew. I've ridden Vail Pass once before, and while I remember it being hard, it seemed MUCH harder this time, especially considering the fact that I felt like I was in far better "bike" shape than when I did it before. Of course, we didn't even start the climb until we were over 40 miles into the ride, which may have had something to do with it! At this point, we kind of all took off to do our own thing up the pass. Climbing is a very individual thing, I have learned. Some people need to just power through and get it done as fast as humanly possible, while others need to take every opportunity to stop. I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I stopped twice on Vail Pass. Once in a patch of shade, mostly because I knew I needed to drink and that I probably needed to stop to do so. The second time was after the infamous "wall". My heart rate was out of control, and I could feel that I probably needed my inhaler. It didn't hurt that I was dying at the time!

Everyone eventually made it successfully up Vail Pass, no small feat indeed. The Vail lunch stop is an extremely popular SAG wagon location, for some reason. No SAG wagons for us, though!

Amy, Jean, me, and Cindy after conquering the pass

After that, it was an easy cruise down to Copper to finish the day's ride. Well, except for the part where there was an accident and we had to hang around at the rest area waiting for the bike path to reopen. :-( And the part where we lost Megan because she got ANOTHER flat tire just out of the aid station at the top of the pass. :-( Other than that, it was great, though! :-p

Once we made it back to our condo, it was time to take advantage of the conveniently located ice-cold mountain stream right outside our building...

Brrrr....but ahhhhhh!

In my next blog post: Day two....the CENTURY!!!

Rock n' Roll Denver Marathon

gaye — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:11:00 GMT

So, as many of you know, I was kind of in denial all last week about the whole marathon thing. I think part of that was just doubt that I could actually do it! Even as I was laying all my gear out the night before the race, I really was not grasping that I was running a marathon in the morning. My training was not nearly as good for this race as it was for Arizona. I got all my long runs in, but my overall mileage was way down since I didn't have time to do the longer midweek runs. That and just being crazy busy with school kind of combined to mess with me mentally about my ability to run 26.2 miles.

I woke up Sunday morning, headed down to the start, and was plenty early because I'm paranoid like that. I started texting people to see if anyone was down there yet; miraculously as I was texting with Liz to figure out where she was, I ran (almost literally) right into her (and Erica and Sarah and Jen). I also miraculously managed to find Shannon, who didn't even have a phone...no small feat in a sea of 15k runners, the majority gathered right in front of the gear check/portopotties! It was COLD, and I really didn't want to check my bag, but it was time, so we checked and walked over to the start. Everyone was in separate corrals, but it was awesome to have some friendly company until we split. Eventually we started moving forward, but it took 17 minutes for my corral to get over the start line, and we were off! I really believe that I was firmly in denial that I was actually running a marathon right up until I crossed the start line.

The first four miles were through downtown, and it was fun. I think the best cheerleading squads were in this section, and my friend Randi was at the mile 2 aid station, so I got to get a cheer and a quick hug from her. Oh, and I saw a woman totally run into a fence on a rented bicycle at about 1/2 a mile in, which was hilarious (she was laughing, so I felt ok about laughing at it!). I saw Ben around mile 3, and then it was up a short but steep hill out of downtown.

I stole this picture from Ben's Facebook :-D

I was feeling pretty good at this point, so I figured I'd just go with it and hang on to the pace as long as I could. I thought that at the very least, I'd bank some time for later on! There was an out-and-back section where I saw Hillary (running her first full marathon!) and my friend Megan, which was fun. Randi was right around mile 9 and ran with me for a few blocks and gave me a pep talk, then it was on to a long gradual uphill that seemed a lot worse than it did during last year's half!

Randi giving me a pep talk (stolen, I mean borrowed, from HER blog!)

Right before the half course split off from the full, Becky was on the course, cheering for all of us crazy runner people. And then my friend Cody was at mile 14 and ran with me for a few blocks. I cannot tell you how much having friends along the course helped. It was unbelievably awesome. At the half, I was pretty much rocking it. I was at 2:20 and hoping to hold on for 4:45. Lindsay was at mile 16, where we were going around and through Wash Park for about 5 miles. She was fantastic...brought oranges and a bottle of water and ran with me for a bit before peeling back to try to catch Hillary and then get me on the other side of the park. Ben was cheering again here, too, and got a couple more pictures of me.

I look like I'm having fun, don't I?

By the time I saw Lindsay again just before 19, I had hit the wall. Not having so much fun anymore. But still smiling! I walked with her a little bit (I didn't walk at all until the mile 17 aid station, go me!) and let her give me a pep talk. From there it was just a little over 10k to go, so I knew I would finish, I just had to tough it out. Becky surprised me by popping up at EXACTLY the right moment around mile 21 and running with me (pushing a stroller!) for a few minutes.

Mile 21-ish, courtesy of Ben

This part of the course was tough. It wasn't in a very scenic area, the crowds had thinned, and it was starting to heat up just a little. At mile 21, I knew 4:45 was gone, but thought if I could just run 12 minute pace, I could still PR. By 22, I figured that was going to be a stretch. At 23.5, for some unknown reason, they ran us up the 8th Ave viaduct just to turn around and come right back down. Thanks a lot, course designers! There was a lot more walking the last 10k than I had hoped for, but I was still smiling! I made it a point the last few miles to really try to thank all the volunteers and police officers.

WOOHOO, I made it!!!

Soon enough, I was running across the finish line, and there was Becky again, and Ben! Becky took great care of me, carrying my stuff, helping me get my shoes and socks off, and just hanging out with me while we waited for Hillary to finish. I'm so proud of myself. I didn't have exactly the race I wanted, but I really did have fun. I smiled the entire 26.2. I was in pain, but I couldn't stop smiling the rest of the day, and even now when I think about it! It was a beautiful day, perfect weather, good friends (even if I never found half of them!!!), and I ran 26.2 miles. Not bad for being in denial right up until the start.

Official time: 4:57:39. Not 4:45, not a PR (4:53:54), but good enough!

I loved this race. Loved it. I don't know if it was being in familiar territory, having so many familiar faces out on the course, both racing and cheering, or what, but I just had a fantastic time. I never thought it was possible to have so much fun running a marathon. Yeah, it hurt. Yeah, that last 10k sucked. But even as I was in misery, I was still having fun, if that makes any sense at all.

I honestly cannot wait to do it again! Which is CRAZY. I don't remember feeling like this after Phoenix. Don't get me wrong, Phoenix was a fantastic experience, but there was just something kind of magical about Sunday.

I had an epiphany yesterday. I was driving home from school and I realized how awesome the weather was, and I wanted to go for a run. I mean, here I am, so sore I can barely even walk and all I can think about is going for a run! Crazy! So, I had to finally admit to myself...I guess I really AM a runner. I mean, I know I've done tons of running, but for some reason, it's been really hard for me to man up and just say "I'm a runner". Even after running my first marathon. But today, when I was fighting the urge to run while ridiculously sore 24 hours after a marathon, I had to admit it. Yep, I'm a runner.

Kids Rock Denver

gaye — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:57:00 GMT

Tyler got to do a race of his own this weekend. The Kids Rock Denver race was part of the Rock n Roll weekend. The "kindergartners" ran 1/2 a mile, which is kind of a long way for little people!

My friend Randi made the kids AWESOME shirts with their names on them, so everyone could cheer just for THEM. She blogged about the race here, and I confess that I stole a couple of these photos from her blog. :-)

Tyler was extra clingy for some reason, but I convinced him that even though I could run WITH him, he couldn't hold my hand for the whole race. :-D

There were a LOT of kindergartners, although a lot of them were suspiciously small!

Tyler did a GREAT job running. He ran almost the whole thing, only stopping to walk a couple of times. I was so proud of him!

Look at that stride!

Finished!

Tyler was so proud of his medal that he took it to school with him on Monday so he could tell his teachers and his classmates all about it. And he can't wait to race again! More pictures are in his 4-5 year album here.

A quick recap

gaye — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:42:00 GMT

So, once again, the blogs have been neglected. But, I finally got a bunch of pictures from the summer and fall uploaded, so I thought I'd try to do a quick post with some of our recent happenings.

First, Grandma Lois came for a visit. In the little bit of time I had outside of school, we tried to get some sightseeing in.

We went to Michigan to meet cousin Kade and Ohio to visit Grandma Penny and Grandpa Jim.

It's awfully tiring going to the beach.

Tyler went back to school (and so did I).

We hiked a little.

And we went to the pumpkin patch!

Our pumpkin booty

Tyler and Mommy

And of course, we ran and biked and we both went to school. That's our life these days! Lots more pictures from the summer are in Tyler's 4-5 year album, so check 'em out!

Ironman Boulder 70.3 Race Report

gaye — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:32:00 GMT

Well, I'm a few weeks late with this report, but the big race of this year's tri season (for me) took place a few weeks ago, on August 8. The Ironman Boulder 70.3. Back in January, it seemed like a really good idea to sign up. :-D The Boulder Reservoir is not my favorite place to race. Oh, the swimming and biking are fine, but the run is always hot. And kind of boring. And hot. No shade. August 8. Do I need to say more? I knew I could do the distance, but it was just a matter of how well I was going to do it...I have to admit that I made contingency plans for Tyler for post-race, just in case I ended up passed out or dead on the run course!

Pre-race activities were pretty uneventful. Right before the transition area closed, I met up with a group of people from the Beginner Triathlete forums, for a quick round of introductions and a picture, so that was cool. There was an hour between transition closing and the start of my wave, so there was a lot of standing around on the beach. I got to see the pros start (and Andy Potts come out of the swim with a good 2-3 minute lead, incredible), and that was the last time I saw them for the day! I did run into one of the BT guys in the water when I went down to warm-up so I hung out with him and another guy until they were like "Isn't that your wave getting ready to go?" and I was like "um, yeah, bye!"

The swim: nothing very exciting. I really wish I understood why I have gotten so slow. I mean, I've *always* been slow, but it seems like I'm just exceptionally slow this year. Blah. And they even had the timing mat right on the beach, so it's not like it even counted the long run to transition. Sigh.

T1: Less than 5 bikes left on my age group's rack. Good thing there were 3 waves that started behind us or I may very well have been the last one out of the water...

The bike: This is a pretty good bike course. The hard part is coming straight out of the reservoir into a 5+ mile climb, then there are a few ups and downs, then a long downhill section followed by some flats. It's a 2-loop course, so there were tons of people out there for my first loop, but actually a lot more than I expected on the second loop. I was super psyched to be passing guys. I passed one guy on an uphill, and I don't think he liked it much. I said "on your left" and he looked over and muttered something in Spanish under his breath. Went flying by me on the next downhill and took off. Apparently getting chicked was enough to light a fire under him. The weather had started off pretty cloudy, which was awesome, but the clouds cleared out during the second loop. Uh oh. Not a good sign.

T2: Pretty fast, considering I took a potty stop. My one mistake of the race was here, took a gel on the way out of transition. One swallow would have been fine, but the second was not good. Minor digestive issues followed.

The run: Hot. Hot hot hot. Brutally hot. Did I mention that it was hot? I mean, I knew it was going to be hot, but it just seemed kind of unfair. There were scattered clouds everywhere, I could look up and see them. Were they ever over me? NO! There were a lot of people out there for the first loop, which was great. I had to make a potty stop at the second aid station around mile 2.5 (see foreshadowed digestive issues above). Luckily it was quick. Everybody was pretty much in misery, and it really is true, misery loves company! I made another stop at the mile 4-ish aid station b/c I was feeling some chafing in my armpit (prob. b/c I didn't think to Body Glide my armpits...duh, borrowed sleeveless wetsuit...ouch) and some blisters on my feet. I vaselined them all. Didn't really help much. Around mile 4.5, some guy tried to be nice and encouraging about how we were almost there. Um, thanks, but I still had a whole loop to go. At some point in the first loop, a twitter/dailymile friend found me and gave me some cheers, which helped a ton. Thanks, Leo! Just before the end of the first loop, a friend from track who had been roped into doing the run for a relay passed me on her way into the finish (her: you guys are nuts, this is miserable!). I was convinced the second loop was going to be lonely, but it really wasn't. It did pretty much entirely suck running right by the finish line. I actually felt a little better on the second loop than I did on the first. I thought by the way that I felt that I may have even negative split, but I didn't. Maybe it was just that I was passing lots of people. Almost everybody on the second loop was walking. I was determined not to walk except for the aid stations, and I didn't. Admittedly, I stretched the aid stations way out, but I didn't walk other than that! I picked up a couple of running buddies with around 5k to go, which was awesome. Ran and chatted with a guy for about 3/4 mile, then he couldn't keep up and I ran with a girl for about a mile and a half until she took off after an aid station. Bummer, because she was in my age group, too. The last mile was actually my second-fastest after the first mile. Not bad!

Post-race was not too exciting. Except for when I took my shoes and socks off and found this:

Nice, huh? By FAR, the best blister I've ever gotten. That thing was the size of a golfball. And honestly felt better before I drained it! Oh well. I had a smaller one on my other foot, and some serious armpit chafing, too.

So, now that I have a little distance from the race, would I do it again? Yeah, probably. If you had asked me during the run, I would have said NO WAY. And the run sucked. Bad. But the bike course was so much more fun than the Harvest Moon course that it kind of made up for it. I mean, I had an 11 minute PR, and that was with a MUCH slower swim, and a slower run than I did at Harvest Moon last year. Will I sign up for the series again next year? Eh, probably not. The savings for the series are really nice, but I accomplished what I wanted to at the Peak this year (i.e. having a decent race and not falling apart, and breaking 3:30 for an oly) and the Sprint just wasn't anything very exciting. And after doing a much smaller race this past weekend, I really enjoyed it. So, I think I may try to do some smaller races next summer. And maybe the Boulder 70.3 again.

Just have to share this, I think it's pretty funny (and rumor is they will be sending out corrected race medals):

Look closely, anybody see the problem? You'd think Ironman would have their act together a little better. :-D

Results:
Swim: 58:06 (sigh)
T1: 3:34
Bike: 3:07:48 (17.9 mph!!! Awesome for me!)
T2: 2:49
Run: 2:39:14 (12:09 pace, blech)

Overall: 6:51:31
1000/1193 finishers

Are pigs flying? Is hell frozen over?

gaye — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:01:00 GMT

Because something happened this weekend that I didn't think was possible. I took third in my age group in a race!!! Yep, that's right, ME. Completely average, middle-of-the-pack, some might say slow ME. I placed third in the Female 30-34 age group at the Highlands Ranch Splash-Mash-Dash sprint triathlon. First off, I have to say thank you to Sonja, because I won entry to the race through a contest on her blog. So, without her, it never would have happened!

To be honest, I wasn't overly thrilled about doing this race. I spent most of Friday trying to muster up some enthusiasm, without much success. I just didn't feel ready for it, just two weeks after my half-ironman, and knowing that I also needed to do a long run on Sunday for marathon training. But, it was free, after all, and I'm certainly not going to pass up something free in a sport as expensive as triathlon!

The Splash-Mash-Dash has both an Olympic distance and a sprint distance. I was doing the sprint, which was scheduled to start after the Oly. My scheduled start time was really late (8:57), so I woke up at 6:15, which was just weird. Knowing that the Oly started at 6 and that people were going to be on the bike course before I was even out of bed was bizarre! I got to the race site and found my assigned rack, and I was the first one there. Also weird, but cool because I got the prime end spot. I got my stuff laid out, chatted a bit with some fellow racers, etc. I just felt really scattered, like I was missing something. Hmm. I decided to walk down to the pool with a couple of other people in case they could get us started early. Sure enough, there was no line, and you could go as soon as you had some people of similar pace to swim with, so I got started about 30 minutes early.

The swim format for this race is odd, but it turned out to be pretty fun. It was a 500 yd swim, so 20 lengths, and you swim 11 lengths in the indoor pool, get out and run to the outdoor pool, jump in and swim 9 lengths. I figured for the short distance, I really had nothing to lose, so I tried to actually "race" instead of my normal take my time and survive philosophy. It worked great except for the part where my goggles were not adjusted right and I had to stop at least three times to fix them because they were leaking. I felt pretty good. I did get passed once, but we knew she was faster when we decided to swim together. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't counting and didn't get tapped on the head (your cue from the counters that you have one more length) when she was supposed to get out, so she swam 4 extra lengths. Yikes!

T1 was uneventful, other than finding out that my lane buddy had stayed in the pool too long! Out on the bike...

I knew this course was going to be hilly. I've done another race in this series twice before, so I thought I was prepared, but this was at a different rec center on the other side of town. Where the bike course at the other race was hilly but up and down, this one was pretty much straight up for the first half of the race. I kept waiting for downhills, but they didn't happen! And then we hit the top and I was excited to finally get some downhill, and I got hit with a killer headwind. Pedaling hard against resistance just to go 19 mph DOWNHILL. Oh well. The last part of the course was totally downhill and fast and FUN. I didn't do my research very well for this race (should have driven the course!) and I thought the bike was 12 miles. Turned out it was only 10. Oops. Into transition, where the race photographer got what is probably a stellar shot of me pedaling in while trying to get my feet out of my shoes.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that at some point on the bike it occurred to me that, um, I forgot to put my bike number ON my bike. And not only did I forget to do that, but I forgot to put my race number on my racebelt and lay it out in transition. So, yeah, T2 was pretty slow as I dug through my transition bag for my race belt and wrestled my number on it (dropping it twice in the process ). As I was doing that, a guy at the end of my rack started asking me tons of questions (where does this number go, do I need this number, should I put these shorts on, etc.)...first tri, LOL.

To the run. Once again, I knew it would be hilly, but had NO idea what was in store for me. I always mentally block out the hills in Highlands Ranch because if I didn't, I would probably never sign up for another race there again! I felt pretty good, and I wanted to push the pace and hopefully run sub-10s. I was doing alright and enjoying the nice trail through the park when I rounded a curve to see a mountain in front of me. Ok, maybe it wasn't a mountain, but it was a pretty darn big hill! I thought I could manage to run it, but that didn't last very long, so hiking it was. There were three of those rotten suckers on the course and they were miserable! All I could think was that I was so glad to be doing the sprint and not the oly because the oly turned around at mile 3 and ran the whole length of the course back to the finish whereas we got to peel off and make it a loop. There's no way I wanted to run that course twice! At the mile 3 aid station, I saw a friendly face...a guy from the Beginner Triathlete forums whom I had met at the Boulder 70.3. With some encouraging words and a cup of water, he sent me down the hill to the finish line. The last half mile was great and I felt like I had a pretty good kick to the finish.

I drank some water, packed up my stuff in transition but left it there, and headed over to check the results as they posted them. I could not believe my eyes. I was in THIRD for my age group. I thought that surely the faster racers must have still been out on the course, and once the updated results were posted, I would drop, but I decided to hang around, just in case. So they started the awards ceremony and did the awards for the oly first. The whole time, I'm watching the finish line to see if I see any fast-looking people coming across, but there really weren't. They started up the awards for the sprint, and get to F30-34, and sure enough, they called my name for third place!

I'm still in shock, I think. I've said often that the only way I would ever place in my AG was for there only to be 3 people in it, and I figured that wasn't going to happen until I was in my 60's! I'm really excited, although I don't have any proof yet because someone forgot to bring the sprint medals to the awards ceremony, so I have to wait for them to send it to me!

The funny thing is that I was only a minute out of second place, too, which could have easily been made up by my goggle adjustments, my crappy T2 while putting my number on, and running up the hills instead of walking! But, for a race that I really wasn't very thrilled about doing, this is awesome! Screw those big, uber-competitive Boulder races, I'm sticking to the small races from now on!

Speaking of big, uber-competitive Boulder races, Boulder 70.3 race report coming up later this week, as well as an update on what we've been up to this summer. Just in time for me to start school again on Monday and resume blog silence until Christmas break! :-D

Bolder Boulder 2010

gaye — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:55:00 GMT

Monday was my third year in a row running the Bolder Boulder 10K race. I love this race. The spectacle, the course, the ceremonies...it just all combines to make an incredible event. I was really nervous heading in to this race since I hadn't raced since February...it was like I'd forgotten how to get ready! Plus I honestly had no idea how I was going to be able to do. I was hoping that I was at least mostly recovered from my post-marathon burnout, but like I said, I hadn't raced since February. I had an idea of what I would like to do, but had no idea if it was even remotely possible.

I took the bus up and was at the start a good hour before my wave started (the race starts in waves, since there are 50,000+ runners...first wave went at 7, the last went around 10!). I wandered over to the port-o-potties before the lines got long and took care of business so I could go about pinning myself into my blindingly bright Brooks ID uniform. As I was sitting on the curb, my friend Lindsay found me (her: You weren't kidding about how bright that thing is! me: I TOLD you! :-P) and helped me pin the back part. We chatted as I finished getting ready and then she went to warm up a bit and I went to go check my bag. Where the line was already TWO BLOCKS long. At 6:50! Unbelievable. I mean, the lines are always long, but this was ridiculous. Every one of my friends that checked a bag either barely made their wave, or missed it and had to run with a later wave. Luckily, I ran into Erica and Liz who were in line and let me cut in with them. (Them: BRIGHT Me: I KNOW :-D) As we were standing there, my friend Shannon and her friend found me...guess how? LOL) I find it hilarious that in past years, I've been in the same wave as friends and not been able to find them, but this year, almost everybody I knew who was running found me! ID uni, FTW!

I got my bag checked, finally, and we jogged up to the start line. So much for my planned 5-10 minute warm-up jog. Oh well. I slid into my wave with about 3 minutes to spare. Next thing I knew, we were off! My "goal" was to run 9 minute pace, but I honestly had no idea how realistic that was. I really would have been happy with 9:30 pace. My goal was to go out at or close to my goal pace, since I've learned the past two years that if I go out easy and try to drop my pace later, it's probably not going to happen! The first couple of miles were tough, my legs felt heavy and like they didn't really want to go, but I was still right around 9:10 pace. Mile 1 brought us the Blues Brothers, belly dancers, and Elvis. The first bacon sighting was at mile 2 (with additional sightings at miles 4 and 5). Mile 3 brought us beer and doughnuts, a slip n' slide, and a pretty good uphill. My legs were starting to loosen up and feeling pretty good by this point. For the rest of the race, it felt like my speed was limited more by my cardio than by my legs. Somewhere in mile 4, the spectators were handing out Doritos. That one really cracked me up...They had trays with doritos spaced so that it was easy to grab just one. I LOVE the Bolder Boulder! The last two miles hurt pretty bad, but yet I had my fastest pace of the race. The last mile is uphill and sucks, but there's something SO special about surviving the last brutal uphill into the stadium and coming in to all those people cheering. I was so psyched to see my time under 57 minutes! My official time ended up being 56:52, nearly a minute and a half faster than last year, a new PR! I've never been that wiped out at the end of a race, so I'm pretty confident that I gave it just about everything I had. I headed a little bit up toward the fieldhouse (where they collect the timing tags and you get your snack bag and beer and stuff) and waited for Shannon and her friend Nicole, who started in the wave behind me.

The only real bummer of the day was that I couldn't get anyone to go get breakfast with me after the race! All my friends were either heading home right away, in later waves, or just not interested. Oh well. I did a walk through the expo, hung out with one friend for a little while, and then met up with some new friends from Twitter. I'd never met them before, but they turned out to be really, really cool. The Memorial Day ceremonies were, as always, phenomenal. The pro race was incredible. They do a team format with each country having three runners for their team. The mens race was won by Ethiopia, all three runners came into the stadium together HOLDING HANDS THREE ACROSS. And STAYED that way all the way through the stadium and across the finish line! I've never seen anything like it, it was incredible. They did give them official places and stuff, but they all said that they were sharing the prize money equally. How cool is that?! Almost as cool was the fact that Team Colorado (who is kinda the JV team for Team USA for this race) got second, placing all three runners in the top 10! The women's finish wasn't quite as impressive but it was really freaking fast. The first mile was 4:55! I think the winner's time was 31:06 or something ridiculous like that. The men's winning time was 29ish!

Overall, another great day at the Bolder Boulder. I really love this race. I mean, come on...50,000+ racers, a stadium full of people cheering for running, of all things, awesome elite racing...it just doesn't get much better!

Skydiver bringing in the flag for Memorial Day ceremonies

With my new Twitter friends, Sarah, Lisa, and Ali

Official race results:

Net time: 56:52

Pace: 9:09 (not quite 9:00, but not bad!)

Overall place: 11428/50421

Gender place: 3478/22964

Division place: 120/643

Tyler's 4th Birthday

gaye — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:24:00 GMT

It's hard to believe, but my baby turned FOUR on Sunday! How the heck did that happen? And when did he get so tall?

The only thing that I could get out of Tyler leading up to his birthday was that he wanted a fire truck cake. Hmm, ok. I can do that! Although I had originally intended to have his party at home at least one more year, the thought of the cleaning and all the logistics involved was kind of stressing me out, so when I found out that the Denver Firefighters Museum hosted birthday parties, it seemed like the perfect solution. For a very reasonable price, we could have two hours in the museum, a space to do cake and ice cream, a little presentation for the kids where the birthday boy would get to be the chief and be the first one to slide down the pole, and each kid would get to take home a helmet and a badge sticker. SOLD!

The Cake

Ready to blow out the candles

Getting his fire chief gear on

All dressed up, with Taylor and Sage

I can't say enough about how great the fire museum was. The kids got to dress up in fire gear, slide down the pole, climb all over and in a real fire truck, and more. They had a blast! It really was the perfect party for a 4 year old boy who wanted a fire truck cake. :-)

After the party, we had to speed down the highway for Tyler's third swim lesson. Because it was his birthday, everybody in the pool area sang happy birthday to him and he got a free cookie and a birthday ribbon.

Hey, don't squirt Mommy!

Tyler's party was on Friday because of the fire museum's availability, but the festivities continued on to his actual birthday on Sunday. I took him out for breakfast, and then we went to meet friends at the swim beach at Chatfield. The weather had been fairly chilly and we weren't planning on staying long, so I didn't bring swimsuits. Oops. Oh well, we just stripped down to undies and had a great time playing on the beach!

Fun on the swim beach

After the beach, we headed up to my friend Jenn's house in Bailey. Jenn's daughter Kellyn is just a couple of weeks older than Tyler and they were having a birthday/Memorial Day BBQ. Tyler was a little confused at first ("But it's my birthday") but had a great time playing with all the fun stuff at their house. He conned my friend Gwyneth into playing baseball with him...little did she know she would be pitching that long! She even taught him how to "call his shot", ha!

Calling his shot

It was a great day with my little man. Well, I guess it was actually a great weekend! Little did I know four years ago how much it was possible to love him. And as frustrating as he can be at times, he truly is a wonderful kid (and I'm not just saying that because he's mine!) and I couldn't ask for better. I can't wait to see what being the mother of a FOUR year old is like!

What we've been up to...

gaye — Wed, 12 May 2010 01:42:00 GMT

Yeah, yeah, I know. I've been neglecting the blog again. Sorry about that! I finally got around to uploading a bunch of pictures, so it seemed like an appropriate time for a "what we've been doing lately" post.

First of all, for those of you who may not know (which probably isn't very many)...I got into nursing school!!! Hooray! School starts in less than a month, so it's been a bit of a whirlwind getting financial aid forms filled out, taking care of checking all my immunizations and getting boosters, registering for classes, hiring a nanny for the summer (we'll still need to find a full time nanny for the fall), and just generally letting it sink in that I'm going back to school. The details...I will be attending the University of Colorado-Denver at the Anschutz Medical Campus (where University Hospital is) to get a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. I got accepted to the accelerated program, which means that I will graduate in December 2011, assuming I survive all my classes and clinicals! I'll only be in class on Tuesday and Thursday for the summer (with an online class as well), which will leave me a teeny bit of time to play this summer before school *really* gets serious in the fall.

We took a quick trip back to Ohio in April. Miami made it to the Frozen Four hockey championships again, and conveniently enough, they were in Detroit this year, so I took Tyler along and dropped him at Grandma and Grandpa's house while I was at the games. Unfortunately, Miami took a major beatdown from the evil that is Boston College, but it was still a fun weekend, getting to hang out with friends and family.

Friends from Miami: Megan, Mary Lynne and me

Tyler and Kallie with the grandparents

Cleaning grandma's house!

Tyler's preschool had its annual carnival at the beginning of May, and it was a blast! There was a cakewalk, cookie decorating, a fire truck, train rides, wagon rides, bounce houses, games, and much much more.

Driving the fire truck

Ready for a train ride

And finally, this past weekend we headed up to A-Basin to meet up with friends for a Mother's Day bash on the Beach. The Beach is the front row of parking right up alongside the bunny slope, and it's party central in the spring. I only got a few "grown-up" runs in, but we had a blast just hanging out and Tyler got a bunch of runs in, too. He totally rocked the Molly Hogan headwall! :-D

My friend Shannon and her husband Brett hosted the Beach party. Let me tell ya, the Dilleys know how to tailgate! A bloody mary bar, a mini-keg, lots of food, and lots of great company...

Shannon and I (we both have some GREAT hair going here!)

Shannon's daughter Paige and Tyler were fast friends and had a blast playing in the snow and mud together (making "iced cocoa drinks"...I'm pretty sure that one was Paige's idea)!

My friend Katy is a ski instructor and was so awesome as to take Tyler on a few runs and give him some tips (among them, how to spear snowboarders with a ski pole!). She also took him on his very first chairlift ride, something mommy was too chicken to attempt!

She also encouraged an over-eager almost-4-year-old to take her down...and he did!

It was a wonderful day with some good friends, and my number one little ski buddy!

What's up next? Well, I have a whole lot of "stuff" to cram in before I start school...a bike fitting, sushi with the girls, some serious housecleaning, Tyler's fourth birthday party, etc. My next race is the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day and then tri season will start up in June. Classes officially start June 7. At some point this summer, we'll be making a quick trip to Kalamazoo to visit Amy and Dan and Kallie and meet my new nephew, Kade.

Oh, and did I mention that it's May 11, and we have a major winter storm coming? Sigh. I love Colorado. :-P

Brooks ID

gaye — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:48:00 GMT

I first heard about the Brooks ID program sometime last year. My superstar, kick-ass, ultra-running triathlete friend, Sonja, was a member, and so was her also kick-ass friend, Michelle. Hmm, that looks kinda cool, I thought. But stuff like that is for the "real" athletes, not the slowpoke wanna-bes like me, right?

Well, just for the heck of it, I looked into the program, and I liked what I saw. Hmm, I thought. Why not give it a try? What's the worst they can do, say no? So I filled out the online application, clicked the submit button and sent it away into cyberspace with very little anticipation of success.

Imagine my shock and elation when I got an acceptance email just after the first of the year! Wow! Who would have thought that *I* would ever be a sponsored athlete?! Ok, so it's not like I'm getting tons of free stuff or getting paid to train and race, but I get a great discount, and a cool team uniform!

You sure won't miss me coming in this!

So, you may be asking, what exactly IS the Brooks ID program? Well, ID stands for Inspire Daily. It's a team of athletes who are active in their running communities and are passionate about the Brooks brand. From the ID website, ID members "are runners who are winners in their own right: Winning their age divisions, accomplishing their personal goals, pushing their own limits, and, by extension, encouraging others to do the same. They are coaches, mentors, and leaders." Obviously I don't meet that first criteria, but I'd like to think that I do a pretty a good job with all the others. One of the things that I've tried to do as I've gone through this journey from couch potato to triathlete and marathoner is to encourage others that they can do the same. Heck, if *I* can do it, why can't everybody? I've pushed my limits much farther than I ever dreamed possible, and I continue to do so, and I love to see all the friends that are accompanying me in getting out of our comfort zones and pushing past the boundaries of what we thought we could do.

The Brooks mission is to inspire people to run and be active. I can't think of much better than that. I'm still very new to the ID program, but I'm loving the community of athletes that I've become a part of. We're getting to know each other through Twitter and dailymile. It's been amazing to see what everyone is out there doing every day, from the speedsters preparing for Boston to the "average joes" like me who are trying new distances or shooting for PRs.

Me in my new uniform, blurry iphone photo courtesy of Tyler :-D

What's next on the agenda? The Platte River half-marathon, on April 11. Unless I'm out of town, which I'm not going to talk much about for fear of jinxing it, but let's just say that there's a chance I'll be in Detroit. If I'm in Denver, though, I'm hoping for a PR.

And no, I haven't heard about nursing school yet. I promise, everyone will know as soon as I do! They said "late March", which I'm assuming will mean that they will mail the letters on the last day of the month. :-p

One last side note, my previously mentioned kick-ass, ultrarunning friend Sonja is running her first 100 miler tomorrow in Moab. Yes, 100 miles. At one time. I'm completely in awe. If you're so inclined, head over to her blog and wish her good luck, or give her a follow on Twitter (@goSonja) and send her some love!

DNF

gaye — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:02:00 GMT

The three saddest letters in a racer's vocabulary. DNF. Did Not Finish. I guess I've been somewhat lucky that it's taken me this long to encounter them, but unfortunately my luck ran out on Saturday.

Saturday was the third and final installment of this season's Chilly Cheeks winter duathlon series, and it lived up to its name. It started snowing Thursday and didn't really let up, so I was already not too thrilled about racing. Nonetheless, I got up and headed down to Cherry Creek to freeze my tush off for a couple of hours. A few hundred hardy (or stupid) racers showed up, although many of those made the decision to switch from the 10 mile bike/4 mile run duathlon to the run-only option. The racers started in waves of 5-10, and I was in the second wave. Due to the icy road conditions, I opted to ride my mountain bike rather than my road bike, which made for a long, slow ride. The bike ride was absolutely miserable, between the freezing cold and the icy roads. My hands, especially my fingers, were so cold that I could barely work my shifters, and thank goodness I never needed to brake, since I don't know how well I would have been able to. I spent most of the ride fantasizing about taking a DNF and skipping the run, all the while knowing that I'm far too stubborn to actually do such a thing.

I came into transition dreading the four mile run ahead of me. My feet and hands were both numb. I got my bike up on the rack and was promptly dropped to the ground with excruciating hand pain like I've never felt before. I spent a minute or so crouched there, crying, before another racer noticed and asked if I was ok. She escorted me over to the ambulance, where the paramedics thought I had fallen and smashed my hands, I was in so much pain. They kept me in the ambulance for about half an hour, warming my hands up. I feel kind of silly that my first ever DNF was a result of cold hands, but I know that my hands were in pretty bad shape. They remained painful and swollen for several hours after the race, even after getting warmed up. As I've been reassured by many friends since, frostbite (or worse) is nothing to fool around with. I was wearing full-finger cycling gloves, but obviously should have been wearing something *much* warmer.

The pain of the DNF has faded a bit over the past couple of days, but it's still disappointing. And of course, I wish I had a better story to tell. You know, where I wiped out on ice and injured myself or something. Not badly, of course, it just sounds better than "frozen hands"!

PF Chang's Rock n' Roll Arizona Marathon

gaye — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:17:00 GMT

Wow, what a weekend! I flew to Phoenix Thursday night, and Valerie, the friend I was staying with, picked me up at the airport. First stop....In-n-Out Burger. Mmmm. Valerie had to work on Friday, so I took the opportunity to just hang out and relax a little. I also had one last training run to get in, a quick 2 miles. Since it was dark when I arrived the night before, this was my first chance to get a look at my surroundings.

We're not in Denver anymore!

After Val got off work, we headed downtown to pick up my packet and check out the race expo. I found a couple of shirts that I really liked....

My new motto

I had this thought frequently during the weekend! :-D

After the expo, we met up with my Aunt Judy and cousins Chris and Andi for dinner. It was great to have a margarita, relax a little, and get caught up with family that I hadn't seen for about 12 years.

Saturday was another relaxing day. We slept in a little and then went out for some shopping. Back to Val's house to relax some more before heading down for a pre-race pasta dinner with friends. When I signed up for the race back in October, I did it because I knew I had a couple of friends in the area, as well as some family, so I wouldn't be totally alone. Well, I kept finding out that more and more people I knew were headed down to Arizona, which was really cool. We had nearly 30 people for dinner Saturday night! I got to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in awhile, including my friend Mike, who I grew up with, and his wife and family. Some yummy pasta, and a glass of wine to take the edge off my nerves, and I was a happy girl.

Sonja, Randi, and me

I was good and went to bed early, but slept pretty badly. I think I tossed and turned until at least 1, and then the alarm went off at 4:45. Valerie took me downtown, and we had planned for lots of extra time because we had heard that traffic was ridiculously crazy. Well, there was NO traffic and we were there WAY early.

Ready to go, cheesy grin and all!

Val hung out with me for awhile until I met up with friends Cody, Josh, Randi, and Michelle, at which point it was time to head for the corrals. They were all in much lower numbered corrals, so we wished each other good luck and split. Before I knew it, it was time to go and we started walking up toward the start line. I couldn't figure out why everybody was cheering, and then I looked up and realized that John McCain was up on the stand (and apparently the mayor of Phoenix, not that I would have any clue who that was). I was really conscious of not going out too fast and let everyone else just go flowing past me. The first three or four miles sucked. For some weird reason, even though I was really watching my pace, I was having some minor side stitches. Nothing too bad, just really annoying, and messing with my mind because I knew I had a LONG way to go. What was even worse was that the 5 hour pace group had started at the front of my corral, and they went out really fast, and I almost even lost sight of them, which freaked me out! This was around the point that I tossed the 4:45 goal out the window and just started hoping for under 5. Around mile 5, I met my twin...seriously, she was wearing the matching tank top to my skirt, and a hot pink skirt, so pretty much the same as me, just opposite. :-D She was great. She was a great pace for me, and we ran together, chatting up a storm for 8 miles. We caught up with the pace group and ran with them for a little while before they started making me feel claustrophobic, so we decided to go around them and get out in front. That was the last I saw of them!

My running partner was unfortunately suffering from shin splints and decided to drop out at the half, which was a major bummer since we ran so well together. I kind of felt like I was running in no-mans land the next several miles. The crowd had thinned out a bit and there was nobody running my pace. Anyone that was close was run/walking. I felt ok, but not great. I was running right around my goal pace and feeling pretty good through mile 22 or so. Valerie was there, cheering for me right before 22, and I was running strong.

Why do I always look goofy in pictures of me running?

And then I hit the wall at 23. It kind of snuck up on me, because everybody had said it would be around 21 or 22. Those last 3 miles were SO hard. My quads tightened up, then my hamstrings tightened up. I walked the aid stations, but walking almost felt worse than running. The last two miles were a shuffle, but I just kept telling myself that it was only x more miles, I could walk the last bit and still go under 5 hours. I channeled my dingo sisters ("don't think, just run") and my friend Amy (kicking breast cancer's a$$). And even though it felt like fooooreeevvveer, before I knew it, I was coming around the corner and could see the finish line. I picked it up, and finished really strong, with a smile. (You can see me cross the finish line here.)

As I was working my way through the water/fruit/etc., I saw Cody and Josh. Josh had finished not far ahead of me, Cody ran 3:47! And we found out a little later that Michelle ran 3:41 and qualified for Boston and Randi had a great race and ran 4:07! We headed over to gear check where Valerie met up with us and ran into my friend Mike and his wife Marisa, who walked the half-marathon. We hung out with them and listened to the post-race concert for awhile, talking and getting caught up some more.

I finished!

Mike and me

Cody, Josh, and me

Later that night, we decided to go meet up with Randi and her friend Jessie for some Mexican food. Oh, and maybe some margaritas.

Randi and I really enjoyed our margaritas!

Official finishing time: 4:53:54. I'm pretty happy with that. My main goals were just to finish, and to go under 5 hours. I knew I could go 4:45 if I had a good day, but knew pretty early on that it wasn't going to happen, and that was fine. Some parts were much harder than I expected (the beginning), some parts were a lot easier (miles 18-23). I'm still kind of in shock that it's over with already. It all went by so fast! And it's hard to believe that *I'm* a marathoner!

I'm actually not feeling too horribly bad today. My quads are ridiculously sore, the ends of a couple of toes hurt, and there are various other aches and pains, but nothing major. I even wore my boots with 3 inch heels home on the plane. Ok, mostly because they wouldn't fit in my suitcase, and I kind of shuffled a lot, but still. :-D The weirdest thing is that my skin hurts. As in, I was in the shower this morning and when I went to wash my arms...OUCH! Hopefully it's a fairly quick recovery, since I have a race on Saturday! Ok, I'm really not planning on racing, but I'm signed up, so I'll go out and bike 10 miles and run 4. Slowly.

Oh, and in a moment of taper-inspired insanity last week, I did something a little nuts (shocking, I know)...and signed up for my second marathon. Rock n' Roll Denver, October 17! I'm sooooo glad that I have 9 months before I have to do this again!

Happy New Year!

gaye — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:28:00 GMT

Goodbye 2009, hello 2010!

2009 was full of highs and lows, as well as lots of firsts, both for myself and for Tyler. Preschool and a half-ironman were just a couple of the new challenges we tackled this year.

2009 was spent hanging out with friends, at the zoo, on a run or bike ride, at Monkey Bizness, and lots of other fun places.

2009 was the year that Tyler officially stopped being a baby or even a toddler and turned into a little boy. Sniff.

2009 was the year that I pushed myself physically way beyond where I ever thought I could go. Year-end totals: nearly 1900 miles...almost evenly split between running and biking (with not nearly enough swimming in there, too). 14 races. 6 running races, from 4 miles to half-marathons. 3 duathlons. 5 triathlons (2 sprints, 2 Olympics, and a half-ironman). One 60+ mile organized bike ride. One bike ride up (and down!) Vail Pass.

2009 was the year that I registered for my first marathon. Which is in (GULP) 16 days.

2009 was the year that I went back to school (re)taking pre-requisites so that I could (and did) apply to nursing school. Hopefully 2010 will be the year that I find out that I got accepted and begin the next stage of my life.

2009 found me incredibly blessed by the love and support of my family and friends. I am unbelievably fortunate to be friends with some amazing people. People who go out of their way to help me...by watching Tyler when I needed to do "grown-up" things...by listening and offering a hug whenever needed...by pushing me out of my comfort zone and encouraging me to do things I never dreamed I could...by running and biking and swimming and skiing with me. I love all of you so very much. Thank you for being in my life.

So long, 2009. Let's make 2010 even better.

12 weeks to Phoenix...

gaye — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:14:00 GMT

My journey towards full-blown insanity just keeps on going, and today I took the next logical step. I signed up for a marathon!

I've got 12 weeks until the Rock n' Roll Arizona Marathon on January 17. The scary part is that the heaviest week of training will be while we're in Ohio for Christmas. Nothing like busting out a short 20 miler in Ohio in December!

Pumpkin patch and Tyler's first race

gaye — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:03:00 GMT

We had some exciting happenings last week. Friday was our annual trip to the pumpkin patch with friends. The pumpkins weren't as great as past years thanks to some hard freezes and snow we've had, but we still found a few good ones to bring home.

Saturday was the Denver Marathon's Kids race. They have three different races with different lengths depending on age. Tyler was signed up for the Mini-mile for 6 and unders, which was supposed to be a quarter-mile, but was more like a block. Before the race, he got to meet Ronald McDonald and spin some plates.

Tyler insisted that I run with him, so I wasn't able to get any pictures of the race myself, but luckily my friend Laurie and her husband Jay were there with their daughter Megan, and they got a few pictures for us.

Tyler was pretty proud of his race (and so am I!). He's been talking about running another race, and he loves the finisher's medal he got!

Trakkers!

gaye — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:21:00 GMT

I'm racing the Denver half-marathon this Sunday, and a few weeks ago I got an email from my friend Sonja that one of her sponsors, Trakkers, was doing some beta testing at the race and was looking for volunteers. Since I know how much all of you love to follow my racing (yes, I'm kidding), I jumped on the chance!

Trakkers is a company that is developing a real-time GPS-based athlete tracking system so that you can follow your favorite athlete during their race, even from far away. If you've got nothing better to do at 7 AM mountain time on Sunday, you can "watch" me run, however slowly it may be.

I've copied the email from Carole at Trakkers below. Just click the link on race morning, and make sure to take the online survey so they can get some honest feedback on how the device is working and how they can improve it!

Below is the link you can send to your loved ones to use to follow you on race day. At this point I don’t think our application is compatible with iPhone but we are moving in that direction. I think (but am not 100% certain) this test is only viewable from a computer – and I have heard MAC causes problems. ?

(Feel free to forward this email to your friends and family if you’d rather not take the time to explain everything I am below.)

When sending the link to your friends and family, please ask them to fill out the online user survey they’ll find on race day. We are specifically not giving online user instructions how to navigate the system as this is part of our test (frankly, it’s the primary purpose). We realize not every person who wants to follow their loved one will be computer savvy and we are trying to create a system that is fairly intuitive to navigate. Our online user feedback has been critical to improvements and we truly appreciate everyone’s time they’ve taken to give feedback on their experience.

I thank you (and your friends and family) in advance for any feedback they offer. Ultimately, we are creating this device and website for THEM so they can follow you during your training and racing. Knowing how to make this better for them is our primary objective.

We are continuing to make modifications to URL page until race day, so know the final version will not be ready until the morning of the race. Also, if you have difficulty getting to this page, try copying and pasting the URL directly.

Here is the link they will go to on race day.

http://www.trakkersgps.com/trackevents/event-test.aspx?eventid=16&subeventid=19

Thanks again for your help! We are excited for this test and eager for your loved ones to have an intimate connection to your progress!

Harvest Moon Long Course Triathlon

gaye — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:47:00 GMT

This past weekend, I raced in my first half-ironman, the Harvest Moon Long Course at Aurora Reservoir. I'd done a pretty good job of keeping myself in denial that it was so close, but by the time Friday and packet pick-up rolled around, I was doing a pretty good job of freaking out. Surprisingly, I slept ok Friday night. Well, maybe there was some Tylenol PM involved. :-)

I arrived at the Reservoir Saturday morning apparently at entirely the wrong time...there was a loooong line of cars waiting to get in. From what I understand, people who got there earlier and later didn't have any wait at all, but I sat there for about 20 minutes before being able to park. I got my bike down off the rack and went to pump up my tires. Got the front one pumped up, and then my pump decided to eat the end off the valve stem of my tube. Doh. Yeah, you kind of need that or the tube won't hold air. I grabbed a spare tube out of the back of the car and the rest of my stuff, figuring I would figure it out and/or find someone to help me in transition. I found a decent spot, plopped my stuff down, and went off to get my timing chip and body marking. Fortunately, on my way back, I ran into my friend Hillary's husband, Ben, who was doing the duathlon and knows a lot about bikes, so I commandeered him to help me change my tire. We got it changed, went to pump it up, and the freaking pump ate the end off the valve stem again! Luckily, Ben had a spare tube and a floor pump, so he grabbed those and changed the tire for me AGAIN.

So, by this time, it's less than half an hour till the race starts and I am totally unprepared. The good thing about this was that it didn't give me time to freak out too much! By the time I got my stuff laid out, it was time to head down to the water. I met up with a friend that was doing the race as well, and we walked down to the beach and got our wetsuits on and warmed up a bit. Before I knew it, it was time to go.

The swim was much better than I anticipated. This race was small enough, and the waves spaced out far enough that there really wasn't much crazy stuff going on. I tried to set a pace that was comfortable, but where I was still working hard. The first buoy was a LONG way out. It took forever to get to it! Out by the turnaround and on the way back in, the waves started picking up a bit, resulting in a few inadvertent mouthfuls of water. Before I knew it, I was done with the swim, and heading up the beach to transition.

T1 felt like it took forever, but my time really wasn't that bad. The water temperature was warmer than the air at that point, and it was COLD. There was a relay team on the rack next to me, waiting for their swimmer, and they were nice enough to help me put on my arm warmers since I was shaking and I couldn't get them on my wet arms. I grabbed a lunabar and headed out for the bike.

I stuffed the lunabar down while trying not to crash, since I had forgotten to eat all my breakfast with all the tire drama pre-race. The first half of the bike was a lot of fun. It was fast, and I felt really good, so I pushed hard, maybe faster than I should have. We did a short out and back and then went into a BIG loop. There was a car of people who were leapfrogging the course cheering for their friend, who was not far behind me. I joked with them, and they kind of adopted me for the rest of the race, which was fun. They even offered me a donut at one point, which I probably would have taken if it had been a jelly donut instead of powdered. :-D The bike course was really not very interesting, out in the middle of nowhere, practically in Kansas. With the weather and the clouds, we couldn't even see the mountains, so it was just farmland with lots of big long rolling hills. My legs started feeling a bit tired around mile 30, and little did I know that the worst was yet to come. Around mile 42 or so, there was a BIG hill that completely wiped me out, but there was still 15 miles or so back to the finish, pretty much all uphill. Ouch. I did a lot of out-of-the-saddle climbing just to try to keep moving forward. I knew the last part of the course was uphill, but didn't think it would be as bad as it was! My adopted friends, as well as Hillary and my friend Shannon were at the bottom of the hill outside of transition, cheering away.

T2 was pretty uneventful. The relay team was there, having just sent their runner out, so I chatted with them while I got changed over. I got to say hi to Shannon on my way out of transition, and got a quick hug, and I was off.

My legs felt really good to start the run, but I tried to keep things under control, since I knew I had a long way to go. It was slightly disheartening to see guys coming in to the finish as I was heading out, knowing that they were done and I still had 13 miles to run! My friend Sonja had written in her ironman race report about keeping a smile on her face the whole race and how good it made her feel, so I was going to try to do the same thing. It was amazing, I felt good, I loved smiling at people (lots of people coming back in on the out and back course), exchanged lots of comments with people, it was fun! I passed my friend Cody on his way back in around 3.5 miles and then saw Ben around 4.5. I hit the turnaround, still feeling pretty good. It started drizzling just a little around that point, which actually felt a little nice. But then it really started raining around 8. Which wasn't so fun. I kept smiling, though! By this point, there wasn't much traffic out on the course (all the normal people had already finished!) so it was getting harder to stay motivated and positive. I was still feeling pretty decent, though, which lasted till probably around 11.5, at which point my legs decided that they were DONE. The last mile had a lot more walking than I had hoped for, and my smile definitely slipped a bit.

I came around the last corner into the finish area, and I could see Tyler, and my smile came back! I ran over and grabbed Tyler's hand, and he ran across the finish line with me. He did AWESOME! They were pretty far out from the finish line, so it was a long way for little legs to go. Hillary was there, as well as Amy and Becky (my #1 fan!) and they were all cheering like crazy. To be honest, the finish is a little blurry. I remember hearing some comments about how cute Tyler was, and vaguely remember the announcer saying my name, and that's about it. I got across the finish, and scooped Tyler up for a big hug, and then my friends were there, hugging me. Amazingly, I don't think I even cried!

The weird thing has been how anti-climactic it's all been. I didn't really expect to get hit this hard by the blahs afterward, and I really thought the high would last longer! By Sunday afternoon, I was in the middle of a major post-race letdown, with a big feeling of "now what?" I'm thinking about signing up for the Denver half-marathon next month (after seriously contemplating signing up for a half-marathon THIS weekend, I've since gotten over that little bit of insanity), and then who knows...

Results:
Swim 44:48
T1 3:42
Bike 3:38:06 (15.4 mph)
T2 3:19
Run 2:32:13 (11:38 pace)
Overall 7:02:06

I was expecting much closer to 8 hours, so to be just over 7 is awesome. I think the swim may have been a bit short, or maybe I just kicked butt. :-p The bike was about 20 minutes faster than I was expecting, and my run was just about what I thought. I'm really happy with how it went, but if I had to do it over, I would try to get my run distance up a bit further beforehand, so maybe I wouldn't crash between 11 and 12. And I think I probably will do it again, just not too soon. :-D

A huge thanks to Ben, for helping me change my tires, and to Hillary for the pictures, and to Shannon, Becky, and Amy for coming out and cheering. Amy came out on a pretty crappy weather day, just over two weeks after a double mastectomy. To cheer for me. That's pretty humbling. I wish I had a picture, but I had "For Amy" marked on my arm, and thought of her frequently during the time I was out on the course (and there was a LOT of time to think!). 7 measly hours on a race course is nothing compared to what she's going through, but she's doing it with strength and courage and grace, and she inspires me on a daily basis. Thank you, Amy. Love ya, sister!

Here is the link to the rest of the pictures from the race!

First Day of Preschool

gaye — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:23:00 GMT

Tyler's first day of preschool was last Thursday, and he had a fantastic time. I was lucky enough to be the helper parent for the day, so I didn't even have to bawl like a baby when I dropped him off. :-D

Unfortunately, Tyler wasn't really in a mood to be cooperative with "official" first day of school pictures. He insisted on standing in front of the neighbors' door instead of ours, and he didn't really want to pose. This is the best I got:

And here's a semi-decent pose in front of his cubbie:

Because I was the helper parent, Tyler got to be the helper child for the day. He got to lay out the carpet squares for circle time:

And play an instrument to let everyone know when it was time to come into the classroom:

There was painting, there was lots of playing, there was playdough.

We also got to provide the snack, which Tyler picked out: muffins and apples. I made pumpkin mini-muffins and sliced apples. I was pretty happy that the snack went over well with the kids. Some ate the muffins, some ate the apples, and a couple ate both!

The only time I got teary all day was after snack when the kids were in circle time with Ms. Leslie. She went around the circle and asked each one what makes them happy. Tyler's answer? "Mommy." Aww.....sniff.

Tyler had a great time at school, and was really excited to go back today. When it was time to go into class, he asked if I was coming with him. I said "no, not today" and he was like, ok! And off he went without a second glance...

See the rest of the pictures from Tyler's first day of preschool here.

Yes, we're still alive!

gaye — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:29:00 GMT

So, um, yeah. It was brought to my attention last week that I've been neglecting the blog. Oops. Sorry about that. Things have been a bit busy in these parts, mostly due to the fact that I'm going back to school. Those two little pre-requisite classes that I took this summer just completely took over my life! I literally didn't even turn on the tv for weeks, and if you know me, that's a big deal. :-D

With that in mind, here's a (not-so) little recap of what we've been up to this summer, with pictures...

I went whitewater rafting for Myka's 30th birthday

We went to the pool

And the zoo...

I introduced another friend, Jenn, to the addiction that is triathlon at Danskin. And had an awful race at Boulder Peak.

I joined my friend Sonja and her training partners for part of a 17 hour training day as they prepare for Ironman Canada (which is this weekend).

I biked 50 miles, my longest distance to date.

And then ran 10.5 miles with Andrea. And felt really good, like I could keep going. So I signed up for a half-ironman.

We went to Ohio for my 15th high school reunion, which I forgot to take any pictures at, but we also got some good visiting in with family.

Tyler learned to eat corn on the cob

He had a great time at Grandpa's car shows

He took lots of pictures with the camera he got for his birthday

Cousin Kallie taught him how to jump on Grandma's bed

Tyler got to feed the lorakeets with Grandpa and Judy

And a giraffe!

He got some quality time in with Uncle Kevin

And Aunt Amy

And Grandma Lois, too, although somehow I didn't get any pictures of that.

We rode bikes. We went running. I raced the Rattlesnake Olympic triathlon, and felt good, although I was pretty slow. We ran some more and biked some more. I biked to Myka's house in Parker for a playdate and back. 40 miles, roundtrip, pulling the trailer.

I finished my summer classes, microbiology and anatomy & physiology I, and got A's in both.

Tyler got into the preschool that I fell in love with in the spring.

We tackled potty-training, and so far it's been mostly successful. I took the front off of Tyler's crib so that now he's in a "big boy bed". And turned his carseat around to face forward, since he finally hit the weight limit for rear-facing.

And that's about where it stands at the end of August. It's been a crazy, busy, but fun summer. I'm doing a 65 mile group bike ride this Sunday, and my half-ironman, Harvest Moon, is in just over two weeks. I'm a little freaked out, but I'm just out to finish, so as long as I beat the course cut-off time (a little over 8 hours), I'll be happy. Tyler starts preschool on the 10th, two afternoons a week. And I start up with classes again on Monday, statistics and A&P II.

Just one more note, before I wrap things up for this ridiculously long catch-up post. My good friend Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer three weeks ago, at 36 weeks pregnant with her second son, Ty. Her son, Drew, will be four in about a month. I met Amy through the hiking group that Tyler and I spent so much time with, and she has become a good friend. Sonja said it much better than I ever could in her blog (here), but Amy has been such a wonderful addition to my life. She helped bring me into the whole triathlon thing, and I've had the joy of racing with her several times.

From my very first tri, Danskin (she's the one on the far left)

To the Highlands Ranch sprint tri last year

At the Fans on the Field 10k last fall

And even the Cherry Creek Sneak this year, pregnant and all

Amy has been an incredible friend to me through everything I've gone through over the past couple of years. I know I can always count on her to listen, offer a few choice words (but no advice unless asked for, which is SO refreshing!), and love unconditionally.

She is, quite honestly, one of the strongest, most amazing women I know. If anyone has the right attitude to kick breast cancer's ass, it's Amy. Her son, Ty, was born last Monday, and Amy will go in for double mastectomy surgery tomorrow afternoon. The outlook is very hopeful, but she has a long road ahead of her, and tomorrow is just the beginning. As soon as Amy is sufficiently recovered from the surgery, she gets to start chemo, which will last several months. Her upbeat, optimistic attitude has been a huge inspiration to me, and I know she's going to come through this with flying colors. Please keep Amy and her family (husband Brian, and sons Drew and Ty) in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow and as she goes through this process.

Love you, Amy!

Triathlon season is underway...

gaye — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:53:00 GMT

My first tri of the season was last weekend, the Highlands Ranch Tune-Up. It went pretty well! Overall, I'm happy with how I did, about 10 seconds faster than last year. My run was a bit slower, but my bike was a bit faster to make up for it. We had absolutely perfect weather. It was a bit cooler this year, but I also started about 45 minutes later, which meant that it was warm enough on the bike course that my feet didn't go numb, but it still wasn't blazing hot on the run. A side note...I totalled my bike two weeks ago (stupidly drove it into the garage on top of the car), so my friend Sonja loaned me one of her bikes for the race. A very expensive carbon frame bike. Which was very exciting and terrifying at the same time! Thanks, Son, you're the best!

The swim was a big mess, unfortunately. Last year, it was very specific about what lane you were assigned to and at what time. This year was supposed to be the same, but when I got down to the pool, everyone was just standing in a big line. At first they were saying that it was just wait in the line and when you get to the front, you go. Then a few minutes later they walked through and said no, wait...line up by bib number. So we did, which put us approximately where we should have been for our assigned waves, at least, but I didn't get started until 15 minutes after my assigned time. Anyways...I got up there, got with three guys, and we seeded ourselves according to how fast we thought we'd go. I was third out of the four. They started us off every 5 seconds. I got going, and was trying hard not to go out too fast so that I didn't burn myself out. The guy behind me tapped me and passed after about 4 or 5 lengths, which was fine. All three of the guys were at least a half a length ahead of me at one point. Then all of a sudden, I was caught up. And they were all right in a row, too. I re-passed the guy who had passed me, and then spent three or four lengths trying to pass the next guy. By this point, there were about 4 lengths left to go, and I couldn't get around the guy in the lead. I tapped his foot *several* times, and even asked at the wall at least three times to "pass, please" and he wasn't paying any attention. I was irritated. It wasn't that it was slowing me down that annoyed me so much (it probably amounted to maybe 30 seconds or so overall, big deal) but it was that I wasn't able to swim a comfortable, correct stroke since I kept running into the guy in front of me. I felt like I was flailing around. We all ended up finishing at the same time and running up to transition together, where I got a little snippy and the lead guy apologized and played dumb. Whether he was dumb or not, I'm not sure. It may have been his first tri, but regardless, it was in all the information that if you get tapped on the foot, you're supposed to let the person pass you at the turn. (For the record, I did apologize after the race for getting snippy and explained that it wasn't the delay that made me mad, it was the fact that I couldn't SWIM.)

Anyways...onto transition. We were all on the same rack, and seriously crammed in, but I felt like I had a good transition. My feet were still surprisingly wet considering the long run up to transition, and I don't think I had enough baby powder in my socks, but other than that, it was nice and smooth. I had trouble getting out of transition on the slight hill since I hadn't checked my gearing and it was a bit too hard, but immediately out of transition you go down a nice hill, and I was flying! The bike course was tough, but fun. Most of the first mile is downhill, then two and three are almost entirely uphill, then a few more ups and downs until mile six (two loop course), which is a fun, fast downhill with a really fun curve. I felt pretty good about my ride. I didn't crash Sonja's bike! My legs felt pretty tired, but I still think I put a good effort out. I got passed a few times, but not by any girls (first time ever!) and no guys on mountain bikes, either! My friend Amy was volunteering and she was at the bike aid station. I was kinda annoyed because she completely missed me the first time I went through even though I waved at her and yelled her name. So on the second loop, I yelled LOUDLY "Dammit, McDowell, cheer for me!" She did.

I had a pretty good T2, although not as good as T1. I got my shoes off before the dismount line without slowing down or killing myself. And then out on the run. Which was really, really hard. My legs just felt dead. And more so than the typical bike to run dead. Which is weird, since I hadn't run since Wednesday's track workout, and I wouldn't hae thought they would still be that tired. The run course is tough. The first half mile is downhill, then it flattens out and then there's a slow gradual uphill to the turnaround. It really really sucks that the last half mile is uphill. I was kind of hoping to be close to 9 minute pace for the run, but it just wasn't happening. I revised that after the first mile to hoping for 9:30, but would have been happy to be under 10. I ended up with a 9:22 pace. Not bad, but not great, considering that's the same pace I ran the Bolder Boulder at, and that's double the distance.

So, it was a good race, although not fantastic. It was kind of weird, I felt really alone for most of the race. There just wasn't as much traffic out on the course as there was last year. Last year, I ran with another girl for about 1/2 of the 5k, which was nice. Even though we didn't really talk, it was good to have the silent company!

Official race results:
Overall place 182/383
Sex place 52/180
Div place 16/40
Swim 11:31 (includes the looong run up to transition)
T1 1:17
Bike 46:57
Bike mph 15.3 (not sure how this works out, my Garmin says 16.0 mph)
T2 1:01
Run 29:03
Run pace 9:22
Overall 1:29:46

Tyler's Third Birthday

gaye — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:27:00 GMT

I can hardly believe it, but my little man is THREE today! How the heck did that happen?!? He's not a baby anymore, that's for sure!

We had a small party at home today, and thank goodness it was small. Who knew seven two and three year olds (plus a baby, plus five moms and a grandma) could be so chaotic? :-p It was a lot of fun, though, and a good time was had by all (I think)!

Here are a few pictures from yesterday and today, with more in Tyler's 3rd Birthday album.

Helping Mommy clean house

Building towers!

The cake

All eyes on presents!

It's a camera!!!

Blowing out the candles

Waiting patiently for cake and ice cream...

Mmm...cake

Kissing on the girls already (uh oh...)

I can't wait to see what the next year brings our way...lots of new adventures, I know, starting with preschool in September!

A Trip to the Beach

gaye — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:25:00 GMT

We were fortunate to spend a week in Hilton Head, SC, a couple of weeks ago for Brian's sister Amy's wedding. It was a fantastic, much needed vacation! Tyler had a blast in both the beach and the pool, played his first round of putt-putt, got spoiled rotten by grandparents, aunts and uncles, and friends, and just had an overall great time. We have lots and lots of pictures from the trip (of course), but I'll try to sum up the trip with a few of my favorites! You can find all of the pictures in the Hilton Head album and Amy & Brian's Wedding album.

Tyler spent at least an hour of our layover in Atlanta standing in the window and watching the planes.

Ready for a bike ride around the island

Shooting Aunt Amy with a water cannon!

Snuggling with Grandma

With Aunt Amy at the welcome dinner

Stick 'em up, Uncle Kevin!

A beautiful setting for a wedding!

My little man, so grown up!

Here comes the bride!

Running off some energy after the wedding

The happy couple

Tyler and Great Grandpa

Snuggling up to Aunt Amy

The beautiful bride and I (and Tyler!)

The gang on the beach the morning after the wedding

In Harbourtown

Ready for some Putt-putt!

Putting with Mommy

Telling Aunt Amy to "get the ball in the hole!"

Aaaarrrr, matey! (It was a pirate themed putt-putt course)

BOOM!