Spectrum 10K on the schedule

Ha, I went to Google images to find a cool logo or something for the Spectrum 10K post and look what popped up!!!  I think this was 2011 when Kev and I made a crazy trip to St. G.  He picked me up from the cabin at some terrible time in the morning and we got our second race done.  This year no Kev, I'll be missing you big son, this year it's Kerri, Brent and me.  Race number 2 is on the schedule, then we'll have our Runners Series done.  I know I ask myself this all the time, but tell me again, "Why do we do this?"

Runners Series-one done!

 Big kids in the backseat!

 Trying to stay warm before the race started.

 They did great!  Brent was third in his age group without trying, he was just "trotting along", Ker was 7 out of 37 with no training, and me, well I wasn't last.  I had a good morning run with Craig running it with me.  We have one more Runners Series race to do, it's looking like Spectrum 10K

Had a little shopping and lunch with the munchkins, Ker, Kendall and Brent before sending Ker and Kendall back to Bountiful and Brent back to BYU.  What a nice weekend guys, thanks!

Enough is  enough!  After a month or so of "rest" aka lack of motivation, I drug myself back to the gym, got on the treadmill and started my version of slowtwitch's 100 days 100 runs, I got a half marathon to run with Kerri and Brent in January, it's time to get busy and begin my "revenge tour".  First stop:  St George Half Marathon.  I even have a pr to beat, looking to best 2:19.

Now, I have beds to make, laundry and vacuuming to do and a party to plan, Brent is at the airport and by my calculations should be departing Phnom Penh in about 25 minutes, he will arrive at LAX tomorrow morning via Seoul and Tokyo.  Kyle is also at the airport, his flight has been delayed but I should be picking him up in about 4 hours!  Fun times ahead!

IMAZ 2012 Race Report-DNF

"My finish" standing at the sidelines looking for my friends to cheer on...."

You know, what happened in Arizona hasn't really bothered me too much until tonight, five days later and I can't sleep mulling it over, knowing that my friends race reports are up and not being able to read them.  So what did happen????

I went to Arizona on Friday to get checked in, Craig was working and had a hike/campout planned with Brad and was flying in on Saturday evening.  All was going well, I met up with Linda Friday night for the athlete dinner and was just chillin' at my hotel, all the HGTV I wanted!  Saturday I started to not feel very well, I was nauseous and no food sounded good.  That's not like me on a day when I usually would eat anything that sounded good in any amount that felt good.  I finally decided I wanted In N Out, I hopped in the car and got to the exit--it was closed, the next exit I got caught up in the ASU post game traffic and couldn't get into anyplace.  I really didn't care, food just wasn't sounding good anyway.  I was slightly worried though because I knew I needed to eat.  I picked up Craig at the airport and it was time to go to bed.  I slept pretty well until midnight and then it was useless, I couldn't sleep anymore. I tossed and turned until it was time to get ready, still fighting nausea and chalking it up to nerves, I forced down some food and we headed off to TTL.  I finished setting up in transition, added two bento boxes to my bike and filled my fluids.  Went out of transition and hung with Craig and got my wetsuit on.

SWIM:  I hung back and didn't get into the water very early, it was cold, but I knew it was from doing the practice swim on Saturday.  It is amazing how much colder it was than just a month before at Soma.  The cold didn't really bother me too much, I had some goggle fogging problems but better than Soma.  One of the kayakers told me to sight into the sun and that really helped.  My goal was to come out of the water at 2:00 hours, not a lofty goal but realistic and it proved to be right on.  Out of the water, whew!

BIKE:  Onto the bike where I knew it would be a long day, but I was excited that the weather was perfect, I couldn't have asked for a better day.  I was anxious to see how much better I could do on the bike compared to 2010 when the weather was so bad.  That year I did 7:17, certainly I could make some big improvements this year.  I started out about 16-17 mph not trying to push it, just trying to get a Clif bar down, doing well and catching my breath still from the swim.  I'm not sure when it started, I think before I got to the Beeline, but my back started to hurt, I had a dull ache during the swim but just thought, oh well, you're swimming 2.4 miles.  The back pain radiated to the side and I was becoming increasingly nauseous.  Just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling. Maybe it's gas...increasing nausea and weakness, I finally stopped just past an aid station and vomited, I reassured the volunteers I was fine and got back on my bike.  My back was better for a few minutes and then the pain would hit again in waves, again I was trying to ignore it and thought if I could just make it to the turnaround I would be fine when I started downhill, my speed slowed ridiculously (especially when you consider my "fast" is ridiculously slow) but I made it to the turnaround, I wanted so much to stop but was sure I'd be ok going back, the pain in my back and side never got better, aero or upright it was getting worse.  I finally got to the turnaround for the first loop, went around the cone and pulled over to sit on the curb for a minute.  One of the volunteers asked if I was ok and I said yeah, I just needed a minute, he said ok but he was keeping an eye on me. I was getting shaky and nauseous and accidentally dropped my bike, another volunteer came over and decided to escort me to the med tent, at that point I was hurting too much to argue, in fact I didn't even mind at all when they took the timing chip off my ankle.  I was in tears, tears of pain and probably tears of relief.

MED TENT:  So every year for the last three years or so we go to dinner with a good friend who works the med tent, my personal doc, so the year I end up in the med tent is the year he is in Rhode Island doing a rotation!  Anyways I was very well taken care of and as I suspected but was trying to deny I have a kidney stone (still). Craig was about four miles out and by the time he got to the tent to claim me I was much better, with the stone having moved.

POST RACE:  I was feeling pretty good, I checked the Ironman store for a DNF shirt, hmmm no such thing, though really I wasn't embarrassed and would have bought one, something to the effect I would be back with a vengeance.  I cheered on my friends and hung out with Craig and knew I made the right decision, heck it really wasn't a decision it just happened.

POST POST RACE:  Well my DNF has finally caught up with me.... This was going to be my last Ironman, but I have such conflicting feelings.  I want to go out with a finish, not like this.  I am excited for my friends great races but I am missing that "I finished" high. Kind of a melancholy feeling about the whole thing.  I look at my bike average for the first loop and even with my slow splits my averages were good enough, couldn't I have just toughed it out?????

PLANS:  I don't know, I really don't want to go out like this, I know it will always bother me.  Annette cramped up on the swim and has a comeback to make also, she's thinking Lake Havasu next year, volunteer 2013 and comeback 2014, I think I'm with her.

SOMA

 

 Pre SOMA, my anxiety level was really pretty low, or so I thought, I think sleep tells the real story.  I went to bed at 8:00 pm, really 8:00 and was dead tired, but I woke up every half hour checking the time, I finally got up about 3:45.  No, that was not my intention but sometimes the body has other ideas.  I checked on the tracking and added the kids phones to my account so they would have the updates, I must  have done something wrong, no one got updates.  My stomach was yucky and I was pretty sure I was going to throw up, that was how I felt all day.

In transition, I checked my bike the night before so I just had to set out my "stuff".  My wave didn't go off until 7:00 am but they close transition at 6:15.  This is me, Linda, Caroline and Kim. Kate also found me right before the swim start.
I will add more pictures from Dad's camera, I haven't looked at them yet. Red Rock's results are not loading, so these times aren't exact:

SWIM:  58 minutes, big disappointment, huge disappointment, I really thought my swim was getting better and that is much slower than IMAZ 2010. I didn't have any panic but I was wearing my new goggles with the blue tint.  The defogger didn't work and the glare of the sunrise was literally blinding, I know I lost some time clearing my goggles and trying to see where I was, but I am not sure I lost 8 minutes, my goal was 50 minutes--in the pool every morning now. I did learn a new trick from the fun ladies in my wave, I was trying to adjust the shoulder of my wetsuit and this lady told me to have Dad blow in my sleeve, seriously this is cool he blew in the cuff of my sleeve, the whole arm puffed up and it felt much better. So, lessons learned 1) Wear my old tried and true mirrored goggles  2) Use spit for defogger  3) Make sure you have hubby or a really good friend to blow up your wet suit sleeve!

T1:  I gave myself 10 minutes in T1 in my goals, a hefty amount of time, but it made for nice round numbers, I wanted to be out of T1 by 8:00 am, with my bad swim I hurried in T1 and was out in 3-4 minutes, putting me a little past my original goal, I am happy with T1

BIKE:  3:47 This is a pretty flat, fast course but it has a lot of turns and turnarounds. My goal was 4 hours which would be an average speed of 14.  It's a three loop course, my first loop average was 16, second 15.5, I'm not sure what my final loop was (Garmin probs, as usual) but my overall average was 14.7.  I was disappointed I couldn't keep up the 16, it got hot, and a little windy, but overall pleased.  IMO the Soma course is harder than IMAZ.  IMAZ has less turns and you have that nice straight shot up and down the Beeline.  Slower than my IMAZ time even with wind, I'm hoping the problem is just the turns, right!

T2:  I was happy to be off my bike, I enjoyed all the honks and waves of encouragement from those driving away from the race, when I still had a half marathon to run!  T2 was 3-4 minutes also, which is better than I thought it would be, I couldn't stand and change my shoes so I plopped down and took my time.  Hit the porty on the way out and I was off.

RUN:  My goal was to run a 2:30 half, I was not even close, I think I ran about 3:01 :(  I had no legs when I started and finally about half an hour in I was rolling, from that point on I picked up my pace.  On the second loop I found Linda and we walked and chatted for awhile.  It was hot but the aid stations rocked, I filled my jersey with ice front and back at every station, one station had pirates and home made cookies, the volunteers were awesome.

FINISH:  I revised my finish goal during the race from 7:30 to 8:00, when I came in the clock said 8:32, I was close.  Craig met me near the finish and picked out a "not today" for me, she was walking but was significantly ahead of me, I didn't think I could do it without barfing, but what the heck, I gave it my best shot and passed her. And there was Annette, cheering me on at the finish!!! On the way home when I checked my results 7:59!!!! (I wouldn't have made it without my "not today").  My wave was the last wave, 30 minutes after the first, and apparently it started 2 minutes late!  Fifth out of 7 in my age group, I'll take it!

 

THANK YOUS:  I am forever grateful for a wonderful husband who is out there supporting me at all my races, I appreciate it a lot since many spouses do not.  He is the best.  Thank you to my IMAZ buddies, it makes coming to Arizona a lot more fun I love the support.  And one more huge thank you to the volunteers, thanks for staying so long at all your stations to take care of us stragglers, we, the stragglers especially need you and you were there the whole way!

Grumbly place....

I know all I do is grumble on this blog, but...well....I do grumble a lot, usually to myself but Saturday was an exceptionally grumbly day.  I had a long bike on the schedule and Bri, Sarah and Maddie were coming  to watch the BYU game[ :( sad but that's another story.]  While riding I resolved never to do another Ironman, I wanted to be home getting everything ready for lunch and munchies for the game, I wanted a quick trip to Target to buy some Maddie toys.  Our house has a sad dearth of toys,  especially girl toys.  About half way through the ride my attitude picked up and I thought maybe someday I'll do another Ironman (but only with Craig or one of the kids).  I eventually got to the grocery store and stocked the fridge for game day enjoyment and had a wonderful time enjoying my beautiful Maddie, toddling around.

Grandma did have one toy for Maddie to enjoy!

St. George Marathon 2012 Race Report

This was a different kinda year, Craig was training for a sub 3:00 marathon and pulled a groin muscle in June, then in August had a disc compressing the sciatic nerve with so much pain he couldn't walk.  So much for sub 3 plans.  I have IMAZ on the front burner and decided to treat this as my last longest run, and guess who had to run.  Amazing huh, but Craig decided to give it a try, as always the great and spacious vans were available, they just cruise by with their doors open  beckoning any runner who looks even slightly weary, so he went out with the resolve to give it his best, with the van always being an option (yeah right, if you know him you know that's not really true).
It was a strange feeling this year, usually I'm excited and can't sleep, overwhelmed with anxiousness, but this year-nope.  Maybe 'cause it was just Craig and me for the first time, I'm not sure.  I had absolutely no expectation except to hang with the last pace group which would make Snow Canyon Parkway by the cut-off time.
Speaking of pace groups, there seemed to be so many more runners this year, I'm not sure if that was really so but the road to start was packed full of runners, it can take  ten minutes after the start just to get to the start line, (providing a great opportunity to hit the port-o-pots without a line)!  But anyway, back to the pace groups, the five hour group was right where we were getting on the road, so hey, why not, I haven't broken 5 hours yet, lets just see how long we can keep up.  Craig was doing great, I was ok, I would drift to the back of the group and then catch up a little, keeping the balloons in sight most of the time.  I lost the pace group at some point, but Craig said he could see them and I again managed to catch up, drift back, catch up etc.  At about mile 19 we were still with the pace group but Craig was ready to walk and I unintentionally pulled ahead of the pacer, once I realized I had done that my only thought was, if I can stay in front I will break 5 hours. No really, I guess I had more thoughts, like "anyone can run faster, just depends on how much you want to hurt afterwards"--Craig.  "if you hold back on top you can negative split this", "stick out your chest, open your mouth and suck oxygen"--or something to that effect-- I could still do math in my head (unusual for me at mile 19 and figured I would really have to start to push it right now, to pr, so off I went.  I finished at 4:58, Yay--that first number is a 4 not a 5!!! 4:55 was my moving time, now I've got bigger goals in mind for next year, but if I can just keep shaving off time I will be happy.  I was most excited about a stat on my results--for the final 7.5 miles I passed 297 people and 6 people passed me!  I don't know where my legs came from, maybe all the yoga, but my fastest mile was mile 21.
Craig finished a few minutes after me, (that will never happen again I am quite sure!) but I waited in chute the and gave him his medal as he finished.
This morning I signed Brent, Kerri and me up for the runners series, right now we are thinking about doing the St. George Half in January and Lake to Lake if we can pull off a team in March.  At least Ker and I are thinking that, we'll se what Brent is down for when he's back from Cambodia.