Hills and Hangovers and fortunately not Heat! Otherwise known as the Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon Race Report!
Saturday afternoon we went to the Kenny Chesney concert at FedExField! We had a great afternoon of tailgating planned: Corona and CornHole – what’s not to like? We also had fried chicken, pasta salad, chips, etc. A great afternoon in the sun, and I did some good carboloading! We played four fun rounds of cornhole. We also had a canopy to keep out of the sun when not playing. Fun fun fun! We headed into the stadium and got seated just after the first act – Uncle Kraker – started playing. We were pretty lucky – we had seats in the lower deck just under the upper deck overhang – out of the sun and possible rain. But – no rain! Next up was Billy Currington, followed by the Zac Brown Band. At some point my friend Teri and her husband came by for a visit. We got a great picture for our mutual friend Traci (who’d had a hand in getting Teri her tickets). Finally Kenny was up. He really puts on a great show! Loved the entire concert. We did skip out during the encore, when it semed he had all the different acts up there jamming and performing with him. But on a good note, we got out of the parking lot and home super fast. Even still, I only got about 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up for my race...
So, 4AM came awfully early on race day. Plus I’d woken up at 2AM when my son got home from being out. Anyway, got up I did. I was carpooling with Priscilla and she was going to be there for 5AM! I had organized everything the morning before, thank goodness! I was pretty much ready to go when she got there. Except I almost forgot my race number! Yikes!
Traffic to the race venue (Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium) was non-existent at 5AM on a Sunday. Also, the traffic into the stadium like last year was non-existent, too. Then when we were being directed to park we were wondering where they were sending us. But it was awesome – prime parking on an end spot right by the exit, right by the port-a-potties, and right by the finisher’s area. Perfect! P’s friend Cassie (who was doing the 10K) arrived and found us and we all hung out till the start. Sally got a bit of a late start so we weren’t sure we’d see her till after we’d finished.
I’d signed up for this race because Priscilla had decided to do it to qualify for Half Fanatic status. I thought – hey, that’d be cool, I’ll do it too. Then I'd need one more. This was before I’d realized that (1) Kinetic Half tri would work, and (2) that that race alone would be enough to qualify me for Half Fanatic status. But I was happy to be doing the race.
So, I was not sure how I’d feel running this race after my, um, LONG day the day before. I’d been trying to hydrate and was trying to eat but that did not taste good. I’d had a bit of coffee in the morning when I got up, then was alternating between Gatorade and water. Surprisingly when I started running I felt pretty good. And right after we crossed the start line then who ran by? Sally! Yay – she’d made it! I started off very slow, even though I was supposed to race at Z3/LZ4. I wanted to see how I felt. I think by mile 3 I was pretty warmed up and was able to pick up the pace a bit. The sun stayed away and there was a cool breeze, but it was a bit humid. Could have been worse though! Then at mile 4 came the lovely bridge! (The Naval Academy Bridge.) It would be the first of two times over it because the Half Marathon is an out and back at this point. The course has a lot of rolling hills and then at about mile 6 you break off the road and go onto the B&A (Baltimore & Annapolis) Park Trail. This was very nice! Here they handed out Gu. I was carrying two flavors (Chocolate and Espresso) of Gu but did not want to take one. They were handing out Vanilla Bean flavored...and that actually sounded OK. I took one and ate the entire thing. I felt pretty good after. Anyway, you followed this trail to the turnaround then retraced your steps back over “the bridge”. While one the park trail I got to slap hands with Sally and Priscilla. They were both running strong! Yay!! Back to the bridge... However, once you get across the bridge you don’t head straight toward the finish line. The course actually turns off back the way you came before crossing the bridge the first time for a total of a mile or so. We all agreed that this was the worst part of the course. Oh well. Finally got to that last turn around and was then headed back. Saw Sally cruising along here, still looking good. (I was feeling pretty cruddy at this point myself.) I was going between power walking and running because I was just feeling hot. I was hoping to finish at the same time as I’d finished the Pig. If I had I been feeling ‘better’ that could have happened. However...I finished just past 1:32, so all in all I was very happy with that. I waited at the finish line because I knew Sally was right behind me so I was able to cheer her in. Sally opened her finisher’s necklace pouch first – it was a Z for Zooma! (But also perfect for Team Z!) And I thought much cooler than last years’ sailboat finisher’s necklace. We decided to get a blanket and sit to eat our finishers’ food while we waited for Priscilla to finish. She showed up – early than she expected, too! Yay for Priscilla conquering her 3rd Half in 90 days for Half Fanatic status!! Woo hoo! After we’d all eaten we walked around the finishers area then took a picture overlooking the stadium. Time to head home! Where I made up for a LOT of lost sleep! In fact, I was so tired I skipped the opportunity for pizza and fun with the Zooma Finishers and Marlene. Maybe next time...
Next up – the Regent’s Park Summer 10K Series, #4! (OMG!!!)
Happy and Healthy Training!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Race Reports: Kinetic and Jim McDonnell Lake Swims...
Kinetic: Saturday, May 14 was my second triathlon of the season: The Kinetic Half! This was my second entry into this race but the first time I’d be doing it. And AGAIN in Team Z fashion, serious rain was predicted for Saturday. And Sunday for that matter for the Sprint folks. Awesome!! Again, there was nothing I could do, but just hope the weather gods would be somewhat kind...and deal with it! Of course this was to be the first race on my new bike, too. Boo – I did not want rain for that!
Friday night I again had a yummy dinner of a Chipotle chicken burrito, and again skipped the corn salsa. Saturday morning I got up super early – 3AM! We were supposed to have camped but with the weather I did not want to chance dealing with the rain overnight. Ugh... Plus I’d had a super busy week (can’t remember exactly why now...) but by Friday I was nowhere near ready to leave at 3PM. It was probably a blessing because we had heard about all the awful traffic reports headed down that way.
I had my somewhat usual breakfast along with my usual coffee. We were on the road at about 4AM, right on schedule! It was dark when we arrived at the race site, but fortunately things got light quickly. We were also fortunate that the rain never was too bad and mostly non-existent. There was some misty stuff, but really not too bad. On to packet pick up...which went smoothly! Love my new Kinetic socks!
So, now that it has been almost three weeks (where did the time go?) since the race, I’m going to have to try to figure out what is worth writing!
Swim: 39:36 8/19
I wore my new sleeveless Xterra Vector Pro for the swim. I just really do not like full sleeves. The water was not too cold so it was not a problem – even at the beginning. I made the decision to hold back on the swim and not go like I normally do. I had an OK swim, I guess. The swim was sort of a triangle-ish pattern. I remember the first two legs being pretty calm – but when I turned the buoy for the third leg – yikes! There were some big rolling waves out there! Anyway, outside of the rollers the swim was uneventful. Almost got kicked (breaststroker) right in the face – totally felt the water moving. That was scary so very glad there was no contact!
T1: 6:39 16/19 – yeah, no hurry here! Wished I had taken a little longer to use the port-a-potty though...
Bike: 3:25:58 15/19
I was riding my new Specialized Transition, Trixie, for the second time at Kinetic. I just wanted to go out and have fun! I had just gotten to the mount line and a guy trying to get clipped in going uphill wiped out. Ouch. Luckily I had no problem there, because in addition to the new bike I’m using a different kind of pedals: I switched from SPDs to Speedplays. Of course, from the get-go I had to use the restroom. I thought I would find a port-a-potty on the course... but I did not. The course was a lollipop style with two loops around the circle part. I still do not have a cadence meter on my bike so I was going by feel and somewhat paying attention to my heart rate. I had fun on the bike! There was just a little rain – mostly misty stuff. I was not too cold nor too hot. I think the rainy stuff helped, actually. There were some really nice spots of road, I remember that. And after about 1/3 of the way on the second loop I really started to ride a bit harder. I had no real time goal in mind, but again went off how I felt. I was feeling good, so why not! I actually ended up passing some folks here. Then during a water bottle hand off I dropped my chain! Melissa has told me how I can try to get the chain on while moving, so I will try it next time! I had to stop and get off and could not get the chain on. The water-bottle-hander-outer did it for me! Back on and moving. I still picked up my pace though and felt really good on the last part – coming down the stick of the lollipop. Felt good going into transition after a clean and uneventful dismount.
T2: 5:30 18/19 – again no rushing here! Finally took that bathroom break and realized that I’d again forgotten to remove my gloves! :-) (I once ran the entire 10K of the Reston Triathlon with my bike gloves on. Duh...)
Run: 2:40:00 (17/19)
Ah, the run. My legs only took a little while to feel ok. I did have a numbness problem in my left foot/Achilles which started pretty early on the bike, which I forgot to mention. May need a bit of tweaking there... Took nearly 12 of the 13.1 miles for that to feel better – and this was after loosening my shoe laces twice as well as the chip strap on my ankle. Oh and *this* was when my right heel started to act up. I was very pleased that my heel lasted that long though! My plan for the run was to run as much as I could and walk the water stops and whenever I needed to. I carried some Honeystingers I was trying out of transition as well as a fuel belt with water and Gu for if/when I needed them. My plan was that I was going to try to ‘eat off the course’. Practice for the big day! Speaking of the course, it was basically a three-loop with rollers. And the start of each loop had this longish uphill. Awesome! Back to eating off the course... Well, there were oranges and Chex Mix! I was pretty happy with that as both were quite agreeable to me! After about the first half I decided to take some electrolyte capsules. They really helped and wished I had taken some sooner. I was pretty warm at this point and also had a bit of stomach ickiness. I made a pit stop which helped then all was well and I ran/walked my way to the finish. I must say, to make up for the longish hill at the start of each loop there was an equally longish downhill at the end of each loop, which finally led me right to the finish!
Final:6:57:41 (16/19) (1 person had a DNF though)
I was THRILLED because I broke 7 hours! This was only my fourth half distance and only the second time I’d gone under 7 hours. My first half was my PR, but I was very, very happy at the end of this race! After I got my free pizza and grabbed my stuff out of transition I got a nice massage from Robin the Ed was kind enough to fire up the grill for me so I could get my hot dog. Then it was time to head out. What a great day!
And from Sunday, May 29:
Jim McDonnell Lake Swims – yes, swims, in Lake Audobon in Reston!
I did both the one and two mile! I have done this event a few times before (2000, 2001, 2004) but outside of a few pool practices I have never swum 3 miles before in open water. For fun I looked up my history (all non-wetsuit) in the 2-mile event:
1:02:34 – 2000
0:57:09 – 2001 – wow, what an improvement!
1:04:59 – 2004
2011 results:
1 Mile, non-wetsuit: 0:33:18, 11/16
2 Mile, non-wetsuit: 1:06:35, 12/14
How’s that for consistent?! There were a lot of Team Z’ers at this event – we even had a tent, which I could see while I was breathing as I came around the drain in the near end of the lake. There were also people from my ‘other’ Masters team there, JCCNV, as well as at least one old Z’er and an old Z’er who’d returned. It was nice to catch up with everyone! I have to say my 2-mile swim felt ‘faster’ than my 1-mile. I think it was because I swam a better line. The course has changed from 2000 and 2001 in which it was a straight cable swim – two loops around a half mile cable. I think then I was pretty much hugging the cable and really did not need to do any sighting. Anyway, after the 1-mile I had a snack and a Gu. After the 2-mile I. Was. STARVING! I had to go to the bathroom but first I had to find food! There were subs and stuff for the swimmers. Turkey sub – mmmm.
Special Note: I had my very last diet soda on May 1. As tempting as it was after both Kinetic and the double swim where there were diet sodas a plenty, I did NOT cave! I am still diet soda free. I have also reduced the amount of Equal I use. (I still use Equal in my 1-2 cups of coffee a day but switched to granular sugar for the 1-2 cups of tea.)
Next Up: Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon! My Z-mates Priscilla and Sally will also be running this race! P is going to Half Fanatic status!! (Go Priscilla!) P’s friend Cassie is doing the 10K. Should be a fun and hot day. Especially after hanging out at the Kenny Chesney concert all day the day before!
And other exciting news: My son’s track team from Annandale High School has several members participating today and tomorrow in the Virginia AAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship Meet. Two of the boys are current All-Americans (XC & 1000/60M hurdles) and one has already won States in both Cross Country and the 1000 in Indoor Track. His team won the Patriot District Meet in early May and followed that with a 3-point win over their region rival South Lakes (who beat them at the Indoor Regional meet – this is Alan Webb’s old school) in the Northern Region Championship. Right now, the AAA Team Rankings calculates Annandale as winning! OMG! I believe that would be a first for Annandale! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for all the athletes. They certainly have great weather both today and tomorrow. Go Atoms!
Happy and Healthy Training!
Friday night I again had a yummy dinner of a Chipotle chicken burrito, and again skipped the corn salsa. Saturday morning I got up super early – 3AM! We were supposed to have camped but with the weather I did not want to chance dealing with the rain overnight. Ugh... Plus I’d had a super busy week (can’t remember exactly why now...) but by Friday I was nowhere near ready to leave at 3PM. It was probably a blessing because we had heard about all the awful traffic reports headed down that way.
I had my somewhat usual breakfast along with my usual coffee. We were on the road at about 4AM, right on schedule! It was dark when we arrived at the race site, but fortunately things got light quickly. We were also fortunate that the rain never was too bad and mostly non-existent. There was some misty stuff, but really not too bad. On to packet pick up...which went smoothly! Love my new Kinetic socks!
So, now that it has been almost three weeks (where did the time go?) since the race, I’m going to have to try to figure out what is worth writing!
Swim: 39:36 8/19
I wore my new sleeveless Xterra Vector Pro for the swim. I just really do not like full sleeves. The water was not too cold so it was not a problem – even at the beginning. I made the decision to hold back on the swim and not go like I normally do. I had an OK swim, I guess. The swim was sort of a triangle-ish pattern. I remember the first two legs being pretty calm – but when I turned the buoy for the third leg – yikes! There were some big rolling waves out there! Anyway, outside of the rollers the swim was uneventful. Almost got kicked (breaststroker) right in the face – totally felt the water moving. That was scary so very glad there was no contact!
T1: 6:39 16/19 – yeah, no hurry here! Wished I had taken a little longer to use the port-a-potty though...
Bike: 3:25:58 15/19
I was riding my new Specialized Transition, Trixie, for the second time at Kinetic. I just wanted to go out and have fun! I had just gotten to the mount line and a guy trying to get clipped in going uphill wiped out. Ouch. Luckily I had no problem there, because in addition to the new bike I’m using a different kind of pedals: I switched from SPDs to Speedplays. Of course, from the get-go I had to use the restroom. I thought I would find a port-a-potty on the course... but I did not. The course was a lollipop style with two loops around the circle part. I still do not have a cadence meter on my bike so I was going by feel and somewhat paying attention to my heart rate. I had fun on the bike! There was just a little rain – mostly misty stuff. I was not too cold nor too hot. I think the rainy stuff helped, actually. There were some really nice spots of road, I remember that. And after about 1/3 of the way on the second loop I really started to ride a bit harder. I had no real time goal in mind, but again went off how I felt. I was feeling good, so why not! I actually ended up passing some folks here. Then during a water bottle hand off I dropped my chain! Melissa has told me how I can try to get the chain on while moving, so I will try it next time! I had to stop and get off and could not get the chain on. The water-bottle-hander-outer did it for me! Back on and moving. I still picked up my pace though and felt really good on the last part – coming down the stick of the lollipop. Felt good going into transition after a clean and uneventful dismount.
T2: 5:30 18/19 – again no rushing here! Finally took that bathroom break and realized that I’d again forgotten to remove my gloves! :-) (I once ran the entire 10K of the Reston Triathlon with my bike gloves on. Duh...)
Run: 2:40:00 (17/19)
Ah, the run. My legs only took a little while to feel ok. I did have a numbness problem in my left foot/Achilles which started pretty early on the bike, which I forgot to mention. May need a bit of tweaking there... Took nearly 12 of the 13.1 miles for that to feel better – and this was after loosening my shoe laces twice as well as the chip strap on my ankle. Oh and *this* was when my right heel started to act up. I was very pleased that my heel lasted that long though! My plan for the run was to run as much as I could and walk the water stops and whenever I needed to. I carried some Honeystingers I was trying out of transition as well as a fuel belt with water and Gu for if/when I needed them. My plan was that I was going to try to ‘eat off the course’. Practice for the big day! Speaking of the course, it was basically a three-loop with rollers. And the start of each loop had this longish uphill. Awesome! Back to eating off the course... Well, there were oranges and Chex Mix! I was pretty happy with that as both were quite agreeable to me! After about the first half I decided to take some electrolyte capsules. They really helped and wished I had taken some sooner. I was pretty warm at this point and also had a bit of stomach ickiness. I made a pit stop which helped then all was well and I ran/walked my way to the finish. I must say, to make up for the longish hill at the start of each loop there was an equally longish downhill at the end of each loop, which finally led me right to the finish!
Final:6:57:41 (16/19) (1 person had a DNF though)
I was THRILLED because I broke 7 hours! This was only my fourth half distance and only the second time I’d gone under 7 hours. My first half was my PR, but I was very, very happy at the end of this race! After I got my free pizza and grabbed my stuff out of transition I got a nice massage from Robin the Ed was kind enough to fire up the grill for me so I could get my hot dog. Then it was time to head out. What a great day!
And from Sunday, May 29:
Jim McDonnell Lake Swims – yes, swims, in Lake Audobon in Reston!
I did both the one and two mile! I have done this event a few times before (2000, 2001, 2004) but outside of a few pool practices I have never swum 3 miles before in open water. For fun I looked up my history (all non-wetsuit) in the 2-mile event:
1:02:34 – 2000
0:57:09 – 2001 – wow, what an improvement!
1:04:59 – 2004
2011 results:
1 Mile, non-wetsuit: 0:33:18, 11/16
2 Mile, non-wetsuit: 1:06:35, 12/14
How’s that for consistent?! There were a lot of Team Z’ers at this event – we even had a tent, which I could see while I was breathing as I came around the drain in the near end of the lake. There were also people from my ‘other’ Masters team there, JCCNV, as well as at least one old Z’er and an old Z’er who’d returned. It was nice to catch up with everyone! I have to say my 2-mile swim felt ‘faster’ than my 1-mile. I think it was because I swam a better line. The course has changed from 2000 and 2001 in which it was a straight cable swim – two loops around a half mile cable. I think then I was pretty much hugging the cable and really did not need to do any sighting. Anyway, after the 1-mile I had a snack and a Gu. After the 2-mile I. Was. STARVING! I had to go to the bathroom but first I had to find food! There were subs and stuff for the swimmers. Turkey sub – mmmm.
Special Note: I had my very last diet soda on May 1. As tempting as it was after both Kinetic and the double swim where there were diet sodas a plenty, I did NOT cave! I am still diet soda free. I have also reduced the amount of Equal I use. (I still use Equal in my 1-2 cups of coffee a day but switched to granular sugar for the 1-2 cups of tea.)
Next Up: Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon! My Z-mates Priscilla and Sally will also be running this race! P is going to Half Fanatic status!! (Go Priscilla!) P’s friend Cassie is doing the 10K. Should be a fun and hot day. Especially after hanging out at the Kenny Chesney concert all day the day before!
And other exciting news: My son’s track team from Annandale High School has several members participating today and tomorrow in the Virginia AAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship Meet. Two of the boys are current All-Americans (XC & 1000/60M hurdles) and one has already won States in both Cross Country and the 1000 in Indoor Track. His team won the Patriot District Meet in early May and followed that with a 3-point win over their region rival South Lakes (who beat them at the Indoor Regional meet – this is Alan Webb’s old school) in the Northern Region Championship. Right now, the AAA Team Rankings calculates Annandale as winning! OMG! I believe that would be a first for Annandale! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for all the athletes. They certainly have great weather both today and tomorrow. Go Atoms!
Happy and Healthy Training!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)