I planned my mom’s funeral, sadly my second funeral in less than six months as I planned my dad’s in late December/early January (he had two due to being interred at Arlington National Cemetery)… Anyway, then I had to pack up/donate/give away my mom’s stuff and be cleared out of her apartment by June 11. That was not much time, but considering she lived in Massachusetts it was better to just get it over with then let it go on. Of course, my dad’s place, which he owned, which I now own – is still a small disaster…and more so now since I’ve moved a bunch of my mom’s stuff there. Well, I could not have done it without the help of family and friends.
OK, enough sadness, back to the task at hand…
Race Report:
Last Sunday, June 14, I completed the Eagleman Ironman 70.3! This of course was not my “A” race but would be a training day for me. Speaking of slacking – I had not done any training since I had left to go to Massachusetts – my last training was group swim on Thursday, June 4th…ugh! I had good intentions, but my stress and lack of sleep and the overwhelming task at hand there made it difficult. Anyway…leading up to race day…
Friday I spent 10 hours in a box truck riding from Derry, New Hampshire to Annandale, Virginia with my cousin’s husband, John. We met Jeff at my dad's house and unloaded all the ‘stuff’ then went out for Chinese, kind of late, actually. Then we had a couple beers and called it a night. Saturday morning we got up, grabbed a lovely breakfast at Ronald’s place then went to drop off the truck. About 40 minutes later we were done and headed up to BWI to drop John off at Southwest Airlines… After sitting in a bit of DC bridge traffic we sailed smoothly to the airport to make the drop. We came back home with no traffic delays and finished packing up for Eagleman. Jeff decided at the last minute to come with me.
We headed out in the early-ish afternoon for Cambridge, Maryland. We hit the same bridge traffic in the DC area, but that was about it. We made it to packet pick-up and got through there quickly and painlessly. Then off to drop the bike. Got a tad bit turned around on the way to Great Marsh Park, which is where the race venue was. I had a pretty decent location in transition – very close to the swim in location and run out location. Not too bad! Off to check into the hotel in Easton and figure out dinner, this turned out to be a Domino’s pizza – plain but with extra cheese. It was kind of blah…I missed my pineapple, I think. After dinner we ran over to Walgreen’s – okay, we drove – for a few minor things for the morning. As we got into our car at the hotel we noticed the cutest little kitten standing on the edge of a car window just meowing away! >^..^< I wanted to adopt him…but I did not. OK, off to Walgreen’s. Mission accomplished. However, when we were leaving we saw THE MOST ANNOYING THING: A man was parked in a handicapped spot that appeared to walk just fine. He was also wearing an Ironman Arizona finisher shirt! The person with him did not appear to be using any devices to walk either…argh! Oh well…back to the hotel for an early night…because 4:30 AM comes awfully early, no matter what time you go to bed, it seems.
Race Morning: yes, the alarm seemed to come early. Snooze one time. Up and moving and finally out the door at about 5:20…I think. A lot of folks had already left. The drive back to Cambridge went fine and we found a parking spot in the field. This was a bit of a walk to the start/transition area but not too bad. It was nice having Jeff there as he carried most of my stuff. Bonus! As I got to transition I saw Lindsay, Sebastian, and another Team Z person who were there to cheer their teammates on. Yay! I checked into transition and got my body marked near the front. (Apparently I dropped my cell phone there too.) Off to my bike to pump the tires and put my nutrition in its place. Realized my phone was gone…and figured it slid out of the pocket of my sweatshirt during body marking. Before leaving my bike, I then saw Kathy from Team Z who was also racing. It is always nice to see familiar GREEN on race day. Back to the front to find my phone… Thankfully someone had found it and turned it in! They said Jeff had called. LOL I knew for sure it was my phone then. Located Jeff and then waited…I had over 1.5 hours till it was time for my wave to go off… I ate my Grape “Uncrustable” and made sure to use the toiletpaperless port-a-potties (quite annoying!) Thank goodness I had some to contraband tissue. It was then finally time to put the wetsuit on and head to the swim area.
Swim: 38:58
Found Kathy again and we walked into the water together. Funny, just before the start I saw an orange turn buoy I had not previously noticed, which was a good thing, because I would have started off swimming in the wrong direction! The START HORN sounded and we were off! The beginning of the swim went quite smoothly. I focused on the almost catch up stroke and trying to just take it easy. I made the first ‘real’ turn and the water got a bit choppier. At some point along this stretch I noticed that my left hand was tingly. Then I realized my left cheek and jaw were, too. HOLY CRAP! I realized I’d been stung by jellyfish! I knew they were out here and that it was a possibility, but I’d never been stung before. Fortunately it did not really hurt but it was just annoying. At one point I saw a blob thing in front of me – that was weird. Hit the next turn buoy and could see the finish way up ahead. I think it was even a bit choppier still along this section but I made it in to the shore without any other critter incidents. My goal time was 40:00
T1: 4:18 – nothing unusual…just me being slow
Bike: 3:32:06
I will start this off with something I NEVER thought I would hear me say – I was a pretty 'boring' ride. It was flat…and a lot straight…and... I.Was.Bored! (Does this mean I wished I had some hills? OMG – I think it does!) I honestly can say I don’t have too much to say about the ride. I thought the first 40 miles went OK. They were pretty uneventful, as the winds did not bother me too much. The last 16 were definitely harder, wind-wise. But wind can be expected out there. Oh, this was the day for critter issues: a bird pooped on my arm and splattered a bit onto my handlebars/frame! Thankfully the poop blob MISSED the opening of my aero bottle. THAT would have been gross! Once I hit a big bump and I ‘thought’ I lost a water bottle. Oddly enough, I only ‘lost’ the liquid out of it…somehow. I had the two rear bottles tightly rubber banded together. When I hit a bump I heard a noise and automatically reached back to check for my bottles. The one on the left was there but I could not feel the one on the right. I knew my special one with the pink lid was still attached because I was able to sneak a look behind. I also made one pit stop to use the port-a-potty. Nutrition on the bike seemed to be fine. I thought I had lost the water bottle so got Gatorade at one of the stops and added some water to my aero bottle at another. Finally I was ready to use my favorite bottle with the pink lid…I reached back and somehow pulled it AND the ‘lost’ bottle that was still attached with the rubber band – it must have been hanging off the back. I’ll bet THAT looked silly! Anyway, the ‘lost’ bottle was completely empty. I wondered if it had been open and upside down which caused the liquid to leak? I have no idea, but it was empty…so I used the other bottle. Very funny. Anyway, my goal time had been 3:30:00 – so I wasn’t too far off…if I had not stopped to pee…
T2: 4:18 – slow as usual but the EXACT same time as T1. Funny.
Run: 2:47:12 (I love the heat. NOT!)
I was going into this prepared to practice the run/walk method – running, then walking through each water stop. As usual my feet did their tingly thing for the first mile or so as my shoes were too tight and I needed to loosen them. I only had to stop once for that though, this time. My right calf took a long time to loosen up though. At one point I thought my left sock was bunched so I stopped to check that. Who knows what that was?! Anyway, I chugged along. I had nutrition on me and was planning to use the course refreshments along the way. The heat was as usual getting to me. I ended up doing the run/walk - running about 4 minutes and walking 1 minute - instead of my original plan. This was a training day for me, so I decided it was not worth worrying about. I could not run slow enough to keep my heart rate in zone 2 though. My main goal was to get the nutrition right and feel good at the end. My revised plan seemed to work and I kept chugging along. I took in an extra salt tab from the volunteers on the second half, as I had not brought enough out with me. I took an additional gel from them but ended up not using it. I finally got to the point where I could see the finish line and that was a nice boost, but still a ways off. Finally, I made it to the finish chute and got some hand slaps and crossed the finish line. Jeff was there! (And I had seen him at the end of the bike, too.) The goal I had set here was 2:30:00 but the heat and subsequent change in strategy affected this. But no worries – I did feel great at the end and the next day as well.
Highlights: Twice during the bike I saw Team Z IMS peeps Jason, Es, and Robin who were out there on their last big ride doing the course in reverse. Awesome! Their IM race is 14 days before mine. On the latter part of the run I saw Sebastian, Linday, and the other Team Zer which was a boost as well! Thanks guys. Of course, the Zer’s I saw on the run while coming in from my bike and once I started the run was fabulous. It is always great to see the Green! At the end I got to see Chris Wren (also from Team Z) who had not only won his age group for the Kona slot, he was also the winner of the Grand Master category (for ages 60+). I was able to congratulate him. Chris rocks!
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Next…
My son’s High School Graduation: This was held on Monday, June 15 at 7:00 PM. I worked a half day, then had lunch with old work buddies before heading home to chill and get ready. The ceremony was being held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC so we decided not to fight traffic during rush hour but to take Metro instead. My son, Andrew, was required to be there for 6:00 PM. Metro was to take 33 minutes then we had a 10-15 minute walk…so the idea was to get there for 5:15-ish, just in case. This was good because we got a bit turned around once we left the Metro station. We saw some red robes in the distance and followed them and eventually got where we needed to be. Of course, another schools ceremony was JUST ending and our red robes mingled in with THEIR robes, which were also RED – this was kind of chaotic! Finally those kids cleared out and it was just us. There was the threat of rain, but fortunately nothing major ever happened. We stood around for a while and took a couple pictures, and then it was finally time to go inside. We found pretty decent seats then waited some more. Thankfully the ceremony started right on time. I won’t go into major details but I will say that while I was stressed about having to go downtown for it in the long run it was worth it. It was very nicely done and I enjoyed it for the most part. However, some of the audience members did not follow the simple instructions the organizers announced which was irritating. But regardless, my first born is now a high school grad! Congrats Andrew!!! Two more years then I get to do it again…
Next up: Montclair Tri, to be held on Sunday, June 28 (which also happens to be my birthday when I will officially be the age they will write on my calf). This race is different, length-wise, kind of a long Sprint…or a short Oly. The distances are: 1K Swim, 30K Bike, 8K Run. The course is described as ‘moderate’ with a lake swim and a rolling bike and run. Another training race before the big event! This should be a fun race - my sons will be there with me AND it is a Team Z race. The nice thing – it is close by and starts at 7:00 AM.
Final note: This Sunday (6/21) marks 5 weeks till Ironman USA! Yikes!!! This weekend is our EPIC of all training weekends: open water swim*, 20 mile run on Saturday; 120 mile bike on Sunday. Saturday I have volunteered to help one of our Team Z Challened Athletes who is blind. I will lead him on the swim* and the run**.
*I will swim as long a distance as he needs to swim. I'm pretty comfortable in open water, so I'm happy to be able to help.
**He needs to run 10 miles, so I will run 10 with him then refuel before heading out to do my second 10.
(And...if you made it to the end - THANK YOU - and I am sorry this was so long.)
1 comment:
Congrats on your race! I canNOT believe you were stung by a jellyfish! Oh man... I would have stopped and given up right there. At least it didn't hurt too bad.
Also congrats to your son!
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