Epic weekend...

aka Getting Ready for Race Day, Sunday!

The epic weekend was epic alright! It consisted of a 15 mile run on Saturday (details to follow), followed by lunch then a 2 mile pool swim. Sunday was THE epic ride! 124.7 miles out of Nokesville Park!!


Saturday was the long run. Priscilla the birthday girl and Carol met at my house at 5:00AM so I could drive us. Um, we were running a little late (#ontheexitramp) due to traffic getting into the Baltimore Zoo. But this was nothing like the Hot Chocolate fiasco from last December... Priscilla always wears themed headboppers in races (and I’ve been converted myself – they are so fun) and got everyone in our group headboppers with crab claws on them! They were totally Maryland appropriate!! Thanks, P!! We all got a lot of funny comments about them, too! The race started 10 minutes late but that wasn’t too bad. I actually had time to head to the portapotty!

This was a hilly race that I nearly managed to negative split - if not for a second portapotty stop at mile 6.27! I’m shocked actually! It was sort of an out and back with a loop around a lake (Montebello) at the out and a little deviation or two on the way back. According to my results e-mail from the race organizers, the weather at start time was mostly sunny, 68 degrees F, 70% humidity, variable wind 4 mph. There were 249 finishers in the Female 45 to 49 age group and 4680 finishers in the Run Division. My overall finish place was 2518, my age group finish place was 105 and my gender finish place was 1123. My time was 1:39:29.16 giving me an overall pace of 9:57 per mile. My first five mile split was 49:32.53 and the second was 49:56.63. I’m pretty certain I was in the potty for a good minute... Anyway, that is a lot of info they supplied afterwards! After the 10 miles Carol was nice enough to stand in line for my premium B10 jacket so I could run some more! Thanks Carol!


Back to the run: I was supposed to do 5-6 miles before the race, then race the 10 miles at z3 or higher. However...as we were late due to being stuck in traffic getting into the Zoo (see above) there was no time! We had parked nearly a mile from the start (.92) so we ran/walked it; then according to my Garmin I ran 10.10 miles; then I did another 3.05 miles and figured I’d run back to the car when it was time to leave. Of course, we were allowed two free beers! I actually drank one while we waited for everyone to gather at the “P” sign and finally we were all ready to head out for lunch. So post-beer I ran a little extra (managed another 1.12 miles) back to the car...so not like me! My total run mileage on Saturday was 15.19. I’ll take it! At one point during my extra running a guy commented on the fact that I was still running...and called me the energizer bunny, which is my Team Rabbit name...and the name Carol gave me a while ago. I loved that!


After the race we all met at a place called Miss Shirley’s for a headboppin’ fun brunch/lunch. Literally, six of us wore our headboppers outside around the table. It was fun and we got a lot of funny looks. There were four of us going back in my car – still with the boppers on – and we apparently got a lot of looks there, too. Great fun! Happy Birthday, Priscilla! So very glad I could participate in your Birthday Race Festivities!! Also, the birthday girl had made some race-themed frosted cookies, which were AUsome and Jennifer (who had kindly picked up everyones race packet) had made madeleines for everyone! Also AUsome!


So Carol and I had planned to swim upon returning to my house. We were going for 4000 Meters but we were both dealing with ‘ailments’ – I had a headache and Carol a stomach ache. We made a valiant effort but stopped at 3250 Meters. We have vowed to return after our 80 mile ride in Culpeper on July 1 and do a full 4000 Meters! Still, we managed 2.02 miles in 1:10. We’ll take it!


This brings us to Sunday and THE epic bike ride! We had decided on 125 miles out of Nokesville Park. A 75 mile loop followed by a 50 mile loop. What were we thinking? Actually, we had perfect weather – not too hot or humid, nor really too windy. We met at my house a little before 6:00 and were pulling out of the driveway at 5:58. We got to the park and started the ride a little after 7:00. Honestly, I was very tired and not my usual bubbly energizer bunny self at first. It took me a little while to ‘wake up’ I guess. Considering the time and distance (124.7 miles in 8:45) we really did not have too much crazy stuff happen out there. I mean there was the first time I ran off the road, around mile 70, but did not crash or fall or anything. Pam’s comment about “Gina, why did you go off into the rubble?” did kind of crack us up though. And it clearly cracked me up a lot as I went into several fits of giggles thinking about it as the afternoon wore on. We went back to the car to restock our bottles and stuff and honestly, before I could exit the park I ‘went off into the rubble’ again. I have NO idea... Then on the second loop Carol was saying that the theme song from “Hawaii 5-0” was playing in her head. I said, “Oh we just heard that at the race yesterday!” And she said, “What race?” Um, the Baltimore 10-Miler... Pam commented on the entire Possum family that seemed to have been taken out along the course. Seriously, we saw a LOT of dead opossums out there! In a previous post I talked about how much Carol and I love the song / digital short “Lazy Sunday” from Saturday Night Live. Well, Carol has been rewording the lyrics to this for our upcoming race. You know the one, Ironman Lake Placid! She’s called it "Race Day, Sunday"! We had a lot of fun coming up with various verses for this! If Carol is okay with it I’ll dedicate a post to this before race day.

So all in all I felt really, really good during the ride and when I finished. I mean I was tired, but I wasn’t tired. Starving, yes! And I was able to do my three cartwheels and Carol did her three burpees. My average heart rate was actually below z2 for the entire 125 miles and we held an average pace of 14.3 mph. I was shocked. After we packed everything up we headed for food: Five Guys, of course! It was AUsome!


So Team Rabbit (Energizer Bunny, Silly Rabbit, and Bugs Bunny “eh, what's up doc?”) rocked the epic weekend!


Next up: kickASTtri on July 4!

Happy and Healthy Training!