TheBeckmans.com

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!

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!

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!

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

A little over two weeks ago, I sat in my living room and watched the Miami hockey team win the NCAA West Regional final to advance to college hockey's version of the Final Four, the Frozen Four. I was elated and excited but it never even crossed my mind that I might be able to go. Then the next morning, I had my last training run before my half-marathon, and you know what? There's a lot of time to think when you're running 10 miles. And then I took a nice long shower after my run, and I kept thinking. And the more I thought, the more I thought maybe, just maybe, I might be able to go. So I did some preliminary investigation, and within an hour, the stars had aligned for me. I had a free place to stay, an in on game tickets, and Brian agreed to use some of his miles to get me a plane ticket. I was going to Washington D.C. for the Frozen Four!

So last Wednesday afternoon, I boarded a plane for our nation's capital and the experience of a lifetime. Well, if you're a hockey fan, anyway! :-p And ok, so I actually flew to Baltimore, but close enough! My "free lodging" came in the form of my best friend growing up, Loni, and she and her kids were at the airport to pick me up. I hadn't seen them in two years, so it was a fantastic way to start the weekend. Loni and I spent the evening catching up, which was great, since most of you know how much I like to talk!

Thursday was game day, so Loni and the kids dropped me off at the metro station for the short trip down to D.C. Once in the city, I met up with a friend from Miami, Mary Lynne, and we headed to the pregame alumni gathering at Penn Quarter. We got there early enough to score the last table and the last free t-shirts and rally towels. As we sat there, we watched the place fill up with Miami fans, and the vibe was incredible. We had the pleasure of meeting Miami's president, Dr. David Hodge, and chatting with him for a few minutes. I was really impressed by him and his obvious passion for all things Miami. He even gave each of us a scarf made by his wife since we had come so far (me from Denver, Mary Lynne from San Diego).

Me and President Hodge

We also met some rather odd, but entertaining, fans from Northern Michigan. They came in with a one man band, the lyrics to our fight song printed out (which they used to lead the bar in a couple rounds), and tons of enthusiasm...they were awesome!

After the pregame, it was time for the big show. We made a stop-over to meet up with Becky from the miamihawktalk message board (who is an incredible woman...hooked us up with tickets and hotel rooms for after the games) and pick up our game tickets and then it was over to the Verizon Center to watch the first-ever team from Miami play in a national semifinal game. Miami was very well-represented but our opponent, Bemidji State, was wearing the Cinderella crown and therefore every unaffiliated fan in the building was cheering for them. Fortunately, we only really had to hear them cheering one time, as we dominated the game. Honestly, most of the game is a blur to me. I remember seeing the puck in the back of the net, with little memory of how it got there. All I know is that it was absolutely incredible to be in the middle of the Miami section, screaming my head off as we sent the Bemidji Beavers back to Minnesota. 

Me and Swoop (who I must admit is a better mascot than the old and worn Tom-O-Hawk we had back in the day)

After not-nearly-enough sleep, I got up the next morning to take advantage of being in D.C. and go for a really memorable run. Our hotel was less than half a mile from the Capitol building, so I ran out the front door, past the Capitol, along the Mall, around the Washington Monument, and back. I had really hoped to go down past the Lincoln Memorial and out around the Tidal Basin (under the cherry trees) past the Jefferson Memorial as well, but the cherry blossoms were well past their prime and I just couldn't get myself out of bed early enough to have time for a longer run. It was still an incredible run, though!

Next up was a trip on the Metro back up to Maryland, where Loni and Rachel and Garrett picked me up. I had asked if we could go somewhere with some good crab for lunch (seeing as how we're land-locked and all here in Colorado), so Loni got a recommendation for a restaurant, and we had a delicious meal. Mmm...crabcakes. Next up, we headed to Ellicott City to walk around and take advantage of the beautiful day and do some window shopping. 

Loni and I in Ellicott City (as taken by Rachel, age 5...not bad, huh?!)

I had great plans to go for a nice run through Loni's neighborhood on Saturday morning, but it was pouring rain so I wussed out. Luckily the rain was letting up by the time I was on the Metro heading back down for the game. I dropped my suitcase at our hotel for the night, and Mary Lynne and I headed over to the unofficial pre-game gathering at a local Irish pub. It was amazing. It had been organized just that morning, and advertised through the hawktalk message board and by word of mouth only, and it was jam-packed wall-to-wall with Miami fans. I talked to tons of hawktalkers, and met lots of people who had just gotten into town after driving in from Cincinnati or other locales. The vibe was incredible. There was cheering, fight-song singing, and (in true Miami fashion) a good bit of drinking. :-p

From the pre-pre-game gathering, it was on to the "official" alumni gathering in the Verizon Center. We met back up with Becky (who had just flown back from Providence and her oldest son's college lacrosse game) and got fired up some more. Before I knew it, it was game time! 

Mary Lynne and I were approached by an usher just after getting to our seats. He told us that they wanted one of US to go out on the ice at intermission for a race. I kind of wanted to do it, and we couldn't decide who should, so we rock/paper/scissor'd for it. Mary Lynne totally cheated, but I'm glad she did. I am SO glad I lost that one. She ended up missing over half of the second period! Not to mention that she kind of got her butt kicked in the race! :-)

Mary Lynne (in yellow) gets smoked in the puck race

Most of you may know what happened in the game, but I guess I should sum it up for those who don't. In a nutshell, we were up two goals with less than a minute to go. An insurmountable lead, right? Well, not in hockey. There's a saying that a two goal lead is the worst lead in hockey, and it certainly proved true for us.

BU pulled their goalie and scored with just under a minute to go. We still had a one goal lead, so all was well. Then they scored again with 17.4 seconds left. We were 17.4 seconds from a national championship. 

The rest of the game is history. Overtime was a very back and forth affair, with opportunities for both teams. It ended on a totally fluke-y goal that went off our diving defenseman and knuckleballed over our goalie's shoulder. Game over. We lose. 

I think I'm still stunned at the turn of events. We were so close, but yet so far away. In a lot of ways, it would have hurt less to get blown out. Nobody really gave us a chance against BU, so to not only be IN the game, but in control of it for most of the game, was a surprise. 

I am incredibly proud to be a Miami alum, and a Miami hockey fan. Our team did an amazing thing last weekend. A little over a month ago, we weren't even expecting to be in the tournament. To be so close to winning the whole darn thing...

After the loss, it was a short night before heading back up to Maryland once again. Loni and her husband are very active in their church, which was putting on a huge Easter celebration in a local park, so I got the opportunity to earn my keep a little by helping out. It was a crazy and busy day, but fun. Keeping so busy actually kept me from totally crashing, I think. It was a beautiful day, although a little cold and windy, and nice to get to spend a last little bit of time with my good friend and her family.

What a great experience. I wouldn't have missed Miami's first Frozen Four appearance for anything, and the fact that I got to spend some time with Loni was a huge bonus. The only problem is that now that I've been there once, I think I *have* to go back. At the VERY least, I have to be there when (yes, WHEN) Miami wins their first national championship. Luckily, next year's Frozen Four is in Detroit so it could definitely be feasible!

Huge thanks to the Penners for allowing me to stay in their home and shuttling me back and forth to and from the airport and the metro station, all while organizing a massive community Easter celebration. Also, huge thanks to Becky, encourager of road trips, purveyor of game tickets and hotel rooms, and all-around awesome new friend!

Many more pictures from the weekend are in my Frozen Four album, so check them out!

I ran in the Runnin' of the Green Lucky 7k last weekend. I did this race last year, and once again, it was a lot of fun! This is one of those crazy, super crowded, everyone dressed in green, lots of people in costumes races. Bagpipers, Irish dancers, the whole nine yards. I had a couple of friends that I was meeting up with before the race, and ran into a couple more randomly, which was fun. It was REALLY crowded, pretty much the whole course. A lot of ducking and diving and weaving, trying to get around people. It was kind of frustrating at times. I kept thinking it would open up, but I had gotten stuck so far in the back at the start that it never really did.

I was still pretty happy with my time, though. According to the official results, I ran 41:21 for a 9:31 pace. I'm totally happy, yet still a little disappointed (if that makes any sense) because I KNOW I could have gone faster, especially the first two miles, if it hadn't been so darn crowded. I did the race at a 9:15 pace last year, so I'm definitely not back to pre-surgery speed yet, but it's coming! I've got the half-marathon coming up in two weeks, then I think a 5 mile race at the end of April, and then the Bolder Boulder 10k on Memorial Day before tri season starts up in June.

 Liz, Me, Amy M., and Amy F. after the race!

And a few pictures from the last Chilly Cheeks race, courtesy of the best cheerleader/race photographer, Becky!

Me and a bunch of guys with really expensive equipment :-p

And I'm off!

Heading out on the run.

Last Saturday was the third and final installment of the Chilly Cheeks Winter Duathlon Series. I was NOT motivated at all for this race. I've been fighting off upper respiratory crud since oh....December. I finally gave in and went to the doctor on Friday, where I literally got smacked upside the head for waiting so long to come in! I got some antibiotics and was feeling slightly better Saturday morning, but was still ridiculously tired and snotty and coughing, although at least the sinus pain had gone away. I got to the race site and it was COLD. As in, freezing my a$$ off cold.  The actual temperature wasn't too bad and the sun felt good, but there was a brutal arctic-feeling wind that just was not fun. So I stood around questioning my sanity and waiting for the race to start because I was too cranky and miserable to go warm up. Just before race start, my friend Becky and her son Andrew showed up to cheer me on, yay for fans!

This was the last race of the series, and it's designed to be the most like a triathlon with bike first followed by run. It was a 10.8 mile bike (wave start in groups of 10-12) and a 4 mile run. I was in wave O (they went A-Y) so I had a while to wait. Soon enough, we were off and my legs were screaming at me that I haven't been spending enough time on the bike lately! The first four miles were absolutely miserable. The arctic wind was giving a nice stiff headwind and my hands were in so much pain it was ridiculous, even with gloves on. Once we made the turn out of the headwind, it wasn't so bad and my hands actually warmed up just a bit. My knee did NOT enjoy the bike, which is not a good thing. Same pain as before my surgery. It wasn't awful and I was able to push through for the most part, but I'm not happy about it at all. Thanks to the wave start, it was a fairly even mix of getting passed and passing people. I was pretty happy that I was able to pace myself fairly well so that I had the energy to pass back some of the people who flew by me early on. At one point a GIRL on a mountain bike tried to pass me and I just thought NO WAY am I letting her do that and picked it up a little. It's one thing to get passed by a GUY on a mtb (not that I like it, but still) but I refuse to get passed by a girl on a mtb!

I came into transition, ditched my windbreaker and helmet and changed my shoes. As I went to put my running shoes on, I realized that both of my feet were completely frozen. Could not feel a thing. Fun! There was a long run out of transition, at least a tenth of a mile, and then a nice uphill to start the run off. I could not feel my feet at all until almost two miles in. At which point, the feeling started returning and I could feel all the little stones that I had apparently picked up with my socks while changing shoes. Lovely. About the same time, I really got into my running groove and started feeling comfortable. I wasn't really trying for a certain pace, just hoping to be around 10:30 average and wanting to run just fast enough to be comfortably pushing myself (if that makes any sense...). With about a mile to go, I got passed by about three girls who all kept needing to stop and walk. They'd pass me, then walk and I'd pass them back. I was determined that they weren't going to beat me, and eventually I started putting enough distance on them during their walks that they couldn't catch me when they ran again. I ran the last mile at 9 minute pace!

I'm pretty happy with how I did. These races are really low-key and fun, but they're mostly VERY serious people (with aero everything and tri/TT bikes) because, honestly? Who else but serious (and crazy!) people are going to get up on a Saturday morning in the middle of winter to freeze their butts off running and biking! In this same race last year, I was only 3 minutes faster (a minute on the bike and two on the run), so I'm definitely getting back to my old form. Yay!

So I finished 178/205 in the open division (everyone except mountain bikes/hybrids/etc). 43:39 on the bike for a 14.8 mph average (sloooow), 3:20 transition (also sloooow but need to remember that long run out of transition counts here), and 39:47 on the run for a 9:57 (!!!) average. Not bad, definitely a lot of room for improvement, but it's starting to come back a little!