Eads Bridge Duathlon 2013 – Race Recap

Getting ready to line up

The Eads Bridge Duathlon was last weekend, April 21st.  This duathlon is a 1.5 mile run, 10 mile bike ride, 1.5 mile run.  The race starts on the Eads Bridge, on the MO/IL state line.  You then run to the end of the bridge on the IL side, then back to the MO side and to the transition area.  Get on your bike and away you go for 10 miles!  Then back to the transition and you repeat the run in reverse order.

Due to recent flooding the transition area had to be moved and this made the run 1.82 miles instead of 1.5, however the bike was still pretty much 10 miles. 

Waiting for it to start, it was FREEZING (and yes,
those would be sock monkey's on my socks)

I originally signed up for this race so I could get some practice racing on my bike and doing official transitions before triathlon season starts for me.  For those of you who know me, I think we can all agree that even though I knew this was a practice race, I was still going to race it and do my best.

I have to give props to my husband because we spent about an hour on Saturday practicing transitions in front of my house.  He would time me and give me suggestions on what to do. At one point one of our neighbors came over, he bikes, and he helped give me pointers too.   This also allowed me to get some sort of familiarity and comfort level with the transitions. 

And we're off! I love the arch in the background

The day off the race arrived and my entourage and I headed down to the race.  Husband, R, my Mom and my MIL all went down with me since this was the first race of this kind I have ever attempted.

I wasn’t too happy to know that I was pushed up an age group level as they went by what your age would be at the end of the year and not on race day.  I had to hope that most of those in my new age group would be older and less experienced (somehow) than I was. haha!

I was able to get my transition area set up and we walked to the start.  Husband and my Mom switched camera’s as my camera is a dslr and kinda bulky and my Mom had brought her small one.  Husband, even though he doesn’t run, was super supportive and said he would see me off at the start and then run to the transition area to give me support there. He wouldn’t be allowed inside but could spectate from afar.

1st transition.I'm behind the runner

My coach has said he wanted me to do the race in 58-59 minutes.  Based on my training, I knew I could do well with the run but we weren’t sure what my race pace was on a bike. I just bought my bike in November so I’ve only actually been on it outside a handful of times.  I was kinda going in to this blind. I had done a brick as a test and I was able to run a mile in under 8 minutes after riding my bike for 11 miles.  So the plan was to do the two runs with my miles being under an 8 min mile and then do as best I could on the bike and with the transitions (transition time counts towards your total time).

Imagine my surprise when my watch beeps at the first mile marker and I glance down and see a 6 as the first number.  Yup. I not only did my first mile in under 8 minutes, I did it in under 7!  My first mile was 6:50.  This was a mile PR (personal record) for me!  I couldn’t believe it!  I knew I was going fast but not that fast!
Then came the transition. Here I messed up on a couple of things. First, instead of hitting the lap button on my watch to mark the transition, I hit stop and didn’t realize it.  So instead of recording the time for my transition it was just paused.  Even though I had practicing taking off my running shoes and slipping on my bike shoes, I had issues with one shoe.  This wasted some time.  I then had issues with my helmet. I have no idea how or why. I couldn’t get it strapped on and had to take it off and mess with the straps and put it back on.  Finally, though, I was on my way!  

yup - he got chicked

Once I was on the bike I remembered to hit my garmin and that’s when I realized my mistake.  So I had to push start and then the lap button twice.  So my times and miles for my run and my bike ride are off because of this. Not a big deal, but for the geek in me it doesn’t allow me to really analyze my pace as in-depth as I would like.

Having never raced on a bike before, here was my plan going in to the race. I would start out at a pace I thought was good for me.  If I’m constantly being passed, I know I need to give it a bit more. If I’m passing others, I know I need to slow down.  As it happens, there weren’t really any groups of bikers. Most people were on their own, either passing or being passed.  Those who passed me were FLYING and there was no chance of me catching them.  I didn’t pass too many on the first loop but on the second loop I did.  I think this was as more bikers joined the course.   The bike course, I was told was mostly flat.  Well..kinda true.   We had to maneuver up some hills to get to a road and then it was an out and back, which we repeated twice.  This main road had a small incline, so when going one direction you were going up a bit and the other direction going down.  Because this is just how things work for me, the headwind was when you had the slight up hill.  Yeah.  Fun!

Towards the end I had two girls pass me but I kept up with them and we finished going towards the transition together. I was a bit annoyed as on the straights I would start to pass them, then we would get to a turn and they would slow way down and move so they were in my way and I had to slow down.  I think this caused me some seconds arriving at the transition zone because I had to slow way down and got stuck behind them getting off the bikes.  However I ran to my spot, threw off my helmet, gloves and shoes, slipped on my running shoes and away I went!

Husband hugging me right after I finished

The second run started with hills. Up hills.  Then we reached the bridge and it was just across the bridge, a small down hill then up-hill and back to the finish. The legs were super tired on this one because of the bike ride but I managed to pass people the entire way, which felt really good.  Husband saw me at transition, then ran to a spot on the course to cheer me on, then was able to get to another spot right before the bridge to cheer me on again.  This helped soooo much.   When turning around on the bridge, I kicked it in and started to surge a bit on the hill. Then I surged again right at the end, passing some guy right before the finish. haha!  I spent this run trying to pick off the females. Finding one ahead of me and focusing on catching her.   I ended up negative splitting this run. The first mile was around 7:57 and the second, .82 mile, was 7:42.

At first I was feeling very good about my race. I knew I gave it my all on the run and the bike.  Then I got the results.  I missed placing 3rd in my age group by 4 seconds!  This bothered me for several days. I walked around being weird about this race. Knowing I had no reason to be disappointed, but being disappointed all the same.  I didn’t hit my time goal, I came in at 1:03:05.  I missed placing by 4 seconds.   I kept going back over the race, finding places where I could have made up those 4 seconds.

All done!  R doesn't seem to care does she? ha!

After talking with a couple of people, I’m feeling feeling very good about my race and very happy with my results.  These are the things that were told to me that I have to remember":
1) This was my first time racing on my bike
2) This was my first time with transitions
3) This was my first time doing a duathlon
4) I PR’d my first mile. I did under 7 min miles for the first run, so much better than expected.  I hit my goal for my second run.
5) The run was longer than anticipated, yet the bike course was still the same miles.  So it’s ok it took me longer than hoped for to finish the race
6) This was my first outdoor mutli-sport race, remember #’s 1-3, and I missed placing in my age group by ONLY 4 seconds.


My official results:
Finish time: 1:03:05, 73/286 overall, 15/138 female, 4/21 age group

To give you an idea of how close the top 4 in my age group were, here are the finish times: 1:02:53, 1:02:58, 1:03:01, 1:03:05.  Crazy! The first person in my age group only beat me by 12 seconds!

I’ve decided that I really enjoyed doing this race. I loved doing the two sports. Both sports were a challenge and doing two in the same race gave it an excitement that I don’t get from just running (even though I do LOVE the running races).   Husband has already said that it will be fun to see what I can do the bike portion in next year after I’ve had a year of training with it.  Looks like I have to come back and do this one again and go after a PR. 

Quivering Quads 2013 – Race Recap

I'm in the yellow jacket. Before the race shot.

Quivering Quads is a half marathon trail race in Troy, Missouri.  This was my first year running this race and I was excited about it even though I was dealing with the stomach bug and injury. The day before the race we had rain, for 5 hours straight.   Over night we had more rain.  Before the race started we had even more rain.  This race turned into an adventure.

At the start of the race we were told the creek crossings were ankle deep.  This ended up being true for some but not others.  The longer you were out there, the higher the water rose and the deeper the creeks were.  When I went through some the water was higher than my knees.  The current was strong too.  I was lucky that I didn’t fall or get pulled under, but others had trouble.  In fact, this is proof that runners are awesome.   There was an older guy in front of me and I kept getting close and then he would get further away.  Well, as luck would have it, I was somewhat close at each creek crossing towards the end of the race.  He would get across, then walk and watch me to make sure I made it across (and talk to me while I was).  Then when I was safe he would take off again.  Now that’s an awesome runner. I couldn’t find him at the finish to thank him either.

waiting for the race to start

The entire course was mud.  And more mud.  On parts, where the trail went downhill, you were just running in a river of water.  Other times you were running through standing water on the trails. If it wasn’t water, it was just mud.   This made for some very interesting situations.  A couple parts of the trail were drop-offs to a creek and it was a long drop-off, you had to walk it due to slipping and sliding with the mud.    I LOVED it.
The first 6 miles of this race were awesome. I felt good. I was having fun.  I started out with people and then slowly I left them behind.  I would catch up to a group or an individual, pass them the first chance I had, then run by myself for awhile.  Then I would see somebody ahead and focus on catching them.  Catch up to them, pass, repeat.  Many of the times when I was by myself and couldn’t see anybody, I would just look around me. It was peaceful. It was beautiful.  I loved being out there.

Then it started to rain again.  I lost feeling in my hands and my arms were numb.  My legs were heavy.  My shoes were so heavy from the mud and water I had trouble lifting them. I had to start walking on hills.  Sure, lots of people do this, however I train with tough hills. I pride myself on being able to run hills.  So for me to realize I needed to walk them, that was hard. 

still early on

I’m not sure if this was a good thing or not but my feet were numb and I was so cold I didn’t feel the pain in my feet and I was able to finish the race. I paid for it after the race and most of this week, but at least I was able to finish the race.  Not the smartest thing, but what are you going to do?

I am somewhat disappointed with this race but at the same time I’m not.  Makes sense right?  I’m disappointed I had to walk up hills towards the end. I’m disappointed I walked A LOT and not just on hills during the last mile.  I’m disappointed that people who shouldn’t have beat me, because I had a good lead on them, ended up either catching me or getting close.   However I also feel good about this race and happy about it because I know all of this was due to the injury and not being completely over the stomach bug yet.  Not to mention the race conditions of the course itself.   So for me to pull off what I did, I think I did pretty darn good.  Plus, I had a heck of a fun time doing it.

towards the end

I walked away with a finisher’s medal and a plaque.  That’s right! I placed in my age group!    I was 100 out of 336 finishers.  I placed 8th female. I was either 2nd or 3rd in my age group. I have a plaque for third, given to me at the race, however I received an email saying I was 2nd and online it shows I was 2nd in one place but 3rd in another. Go figure.  I have emailed the company to inquire about it and to see if I need to exchange plaques.  I know the female winner was in my age group, so maybe that has something to do with it.  Not sure.

not me, obviously, but shows how high the creeks got

Here is more detail about my run, including mile splits etc.

Castlewood Cup 2013 – Race Recap

The first big hill..just to show the conditions

February 24th was the day of the Castlewood Cup 15k trail run.  Leading up to Sunday the weather was forecasted to be in the 50’s.  This was even after the snow storm we had the Thursday before.

The day arrived and it was only in the 30’s.  At first I had on capri’s, a short sleeved shirt, and a jacket.  I walked outside and walked right back inside to change into shorts, compression socks, short sleeves, and arm warmers.  This ended up being the perfect outfit.
 
Leading up to this race I was not happy about it.  My heart was not in it.  I love this race and I love to race. I didn’t want to do this one.  There are a lot of reasons why, but I won’t get in to them.  My heart just wasn’t in it this year.  Once it snowed on Thursday I was much more interested in running it, but still not excited.  I admit that I hate cold weather and snow, but I love to run in it. Go figure.  The day arrived and I had race excitement and nerves, which was a good thing.

The group I met at the beginning

Leading up to this race I was still having issues with feeling like throwing up when I exert myself, etc.  In hopes that it was just not getting in enough food and with this being a late race time (10 am) I was able to eat two breakfasts and a snack before the race start. I think this did a lot for me. I had a ton of energy at the start of the race and through the entire race without having to refuel.

I was in wave 3, out of 6.  You are put in waves based on your projected finish time. I should have jumped into an earlier wave but didn't think I needed to.  As it was, when my wave started I was quickly the first person and I soon caught up to people from wave 2.  Within the first half mile we start on a huge hill and I continued to pass people on that hill, which always feels good when it happens.  Then it happened. I got stuck behind a runner who refused to let me pass.   It’s hard to race on trails because they are narrow and when you get behind somebody you have to wait for a spot to pass.  So I waited till there was an opening, said on your left, and surged, only to have him surge.  He did this every time. I was sooo pissed.  I had to wait until we got to an area where the trail really widened and I had more room.  Which, he still tried to speed up but I had enough room to pass him.  He got CHICKED. And it felt GOOD.

The rest of the race I would focus on catching the person/group in front of me.  Once I did that I would catch my breath, wait for a chance to pass, pass and keep up that speed until I caught the next group. Repeat.

Normally I am slower on trails because I tend to trip and fall. A LOT.  However with the snow, and with it being packed down by the other runners, I felt more comfortable and It showed. I went faster on these trails than I ever have before.  I felt good!  I never once felt tired.  Sure, going up the hills you feel exhausted but as soon as I crested them I felt fine.  My legs were never fatigued. I finished and felt like I could have kept running.  This is a great feeling, but also a disappointing feeling.  This was a race. I should not have felt like that.  However, I know that it’s just the nature of trail races to be stuck behind people.  I know I could have gone faster if I had not been stuck behind people a lot.  This is where I think next year I’ll be sure to start in wave one. If I had started in wave one I think I could have placed higher and had a better time.  However, with that being said, I did excellent at this race.  I am very happy with how I placed and how I did.  I finished this race and felt fantastic. I had a runner’s high.  I did so much better than I expected, especially since I went in to the race with my heart not in it.

I finished out the race by going out for some drinks and food with some new running friends.  This made my day. I have struggled with finding runners who want to run with me and who “get” me.  I am hoping I finally found it.  It was fun to hang out and laugh and talk and just be with like minding individuals.  Without them at the beginning of the race and the end, this race would not have been as awesome as it was. I owe them a lot.

My final results:
finish time: 1:24:16
Overall place: 69 out of 471
Female place: 10 out of 190
Division place: 4 out of 27

Here’s a breakdown on pace:
Mile 1: 9:35, big hill
Mile 2 : 9:40, stuck behind the ahole
Mile 3: 9:15, I did stop to fix my yaktrax and drink water
Mile 4: 10:05, big hill and stuck behind a lot of people going slow on this one
MIle 5: 8:26, mostly downhill and rolling
Mile 6:10:03, majority of it is uphill, worst in the park if you ask me
Mile 7: 8:55, rolling hills
Mile 8: 8:10, downhill and flat
Mile 9: 7:58, flat and a creek crossing
.3 miles to the finish: 7:32, as fast as I could sprint in the snow

JCC Sprint Triathlon - Race Recap

Last Saturday I had my first triathlon where I wasn’t pregnant.  This means it was my first triathlon where I could really compete and not just strive to complete it.  I was freaked out but also confident I could do it because the distances were all short, shorter than I normally do in a regular workout.
This was an indoor sprint triathlon, so the swim was in a pool, the biking was on spin bikes, and the running was on treadmills. Totally flat miles.

Ultimately I had 5 goals going in to this race.  1)Swim under 10 min  2)Bike in 19 min 3)Run a 7 min mile (17:30 min) 4)place in the top 3 in my age group and 5) place in the top 10 women over-all.

Swim: 400 meters

My time was 8:49.  This is the one I felt I probably wouldn’t hit and I nailed it!  I did so much better than I thought I would do.  I did 50m as a warm-up.  Then I stayed in the water, moving around a bit, for probably 10 min.  When the heat started I was relaxed and I went out at a decent pace. I didn’t want to go too slow but I wanted to stay at an easy pace where I wouldn’t tire out and be gasping for breath.  I tried to keep track of how many laps I did because my plan had been to take the first 200m easy, then push it the next 150, then sprint the final 50.  I lost track early on. I am horrible at counting laps. So I kept a pace that I felt was good and wouldn’t leave me gasping.  Then when I was notified I was on my final lap I kicked it in to gear and gave it all I had left.  I ended up being first out of the water for my heat, which felt awesome.

Bike: 8 miles

My goal had been 19 or under. I finished it at 19:24.  Sure, not too far off my goal, but still off.  Trying to go as fast as I could for 8 miles on a spin bike is a bit weird.  You want enough resistance on the bike so you don’t lose control, but not too much that you make it harder than it needs to be.  Throughout the 8 miles I would mess with it and make it less resistance, then more if it was feeling weird, etc. 

Run: 2.5 miles

My goal had been 7 min miles.  I finished in 19:58, 8 min miles.  Here’s the thing. I’m still having some health issues. Nothing to be worried about, but stuff that I am working with professionals on.  So while I don’t know if that was what caused me to have issues or something else, I did have some issues.  I got off the bike and I was dizzy.  I got to the treadmill and just felt like crap. I fought the urge to throw up the whole time.  I started out slow and increased the speed slowly till I was doing 7:30 min/miles.  I stayed like that but was feeling more and more like throwing up, so I knew I had to slow it down. I slowed way down until I started to feel a tad better.  Then slowly started to increase pace again.  I finished out close to a 7 min mile, but it wasn’t enough to hit my goal.   It might seem like a 7 min mile is a high goal, it’s way faster than normal for me.  However, at such a short distance it was possible. I had practiced running on the treadmill at the gym at a 7 min pace for a mile after spin class to see if it was possible.

As far as how I did in placing.  Well, I was 4th in my age group (out of 8). I wasn’t even close to the third place person.   I tied for 18th for over-all female (out of 43).  Not even close to 10.
The results for this race were very hard for me to take. I was very upset about it the day off and I’m still not happy with it.  This is by far the easiest race I have this year.  So for me to not do as well as I had hoped on my easiest race, well, it freaks me out for what’s to come this year. 

I know that my training on the bike hadn’t been what I needed it to be, that’s what happens with life.  Due to the weather I have to train at the gym on stationary bikes.  With the flue going around we didn’t want R in the gym daycare.  That meant I couldn’t go after work.  Swimming is by far my weakest of the three sports, so on Saturdays I would go to the gym to swim before coming home and watching R so Husband could get to the gym for spin class.  I’m not upset about this, but it did mean I didn’t get in as much time on a bike as I had wanted/needed.

While I am still disappointed in how I did, I’ve come to terms with it. I know that I did the best I could and I can only get better from here.  As one of my friends said, a good friend who is helping me with my training. this gives us a starting point.  It’s true!  Now I know what I can do, what my body is capable of. I now have a way to compare my times in training and to measure improvement.

I also have to remind myself that while this was NOT my first sprint tri, it was the first sprint tri where I didn’t have to watch my HR and slow myself down. That does make a huge difference.

So for now, I’ll keep moving forward.  I’m happy to have this done. I’m looking forward to what’s in store for me this year and seeing what I can accomplish.

Skippo 2012 race recap

At the start getting some good luck from the baby

Skippo. What is there to say about Skippo.  I have been wanting to do this race for awhile, I was bummed I couldn't do it last year due to the pregnancy so I was pumped to sign-up this year. 

Skippo is a trail race held at Castlewood State Park.  The route is the same every year but you now have your choice of distance. It's a 10k loop, so you can do 10k, 20k, or 30k.    The loop doesn't appear to be too hard, there aren't as many hills as there could be.  However, it's still a tough course.  There is a set of 200 stairs and a hill called Cardiac Hill.  

Not too far into the first loop (I'm in purple)

I signed up and ran the 30k  race.  This means I ran/walked those stairs and the hills 3 times.  This was my toughest race so far. Not just physically but mentally. 

I have never ran 30k before. Not in a race, not in training.  30k is 18.6 miles.  Not only have I never ran that distance, I certainly haven't attempted to run that distance while also going up 200 stairs (3 times!) and tackling major hills.  I was ready for the challenge!

The day arrived and instead of having cooler temps, as is normal in November in St. Louis, we had unseasonable warm temps.  High in the 70's that day.  This was a major concern of mine because I don't run well in the heat with the current health issues.  You might be thinking that high 70's is awesome weather, and it is, but not when you are running and certainly not when you are running 30k.

Out along the course

I had plans to run with another girl, we had the same goals as far as pace was concerned and how to run the race.  We wanted to average a 10 min/mile and walk the stairs and major hills.  We managed to do this the first loop but on the 2nd loop I lost her on the major hill.  I then had to walk several times along the course.  The heat was getting to me bad.  My stomach was upset the entire time and I was dizzy.   I kept grabbing water at the water stations but it wasn't enough.  I tried eating gu but after a bad experience the second loop I stopped.

I am super lucky that there were a handful of us running the race that all knew each other and another friend who knew us all came out to support.  He knew I was struggling and ran the third and final loop with me.  I had to stop and walk A LOT.  At the creek crossing, thanks to his suggestion, I stopped and splashed my body with water to try and cool down. 

I wanted to stop and quit so many times.  There were times I had to stop and just stand there or squat before I could keep going.  My legs hurt, my body felt horrible, I felt horrible. I kept thinking "I can't do this. Why did I think I could do this?"  But I kept going.  I wanted to finish the course.  It was hard to run past the finish line each time, at the 10k and 20k loops.  I wanted to just run in and cut my race short. I wanted to call it a day and forget it every happened.

For some reason I just like this photo

I stuck with it though.  I pushed my body and staggered on through the finish to do the entire 30k.  Physically it was super hard, the hardest race I have ever done. Mentally it was so hard to keep going and pushing myself forward when all I wanted to do was stop.   I did NOT want to quit. I wanted to prove I could do this.

My goal for this race was to do an average 10 min/mile and to place in the top 10 female for the 30k.  I didn't hit that.  I averaged 11:35 min/mile and I placed 12th out of 19.   I did manage to come in 2nd out of 6 for my age group though. That was a surprise. I got a sweat pint glass for that.   I also received a belt buckle for finishing the 30k.  Trust me when I say it's pretty darn awesome.  My official resorts are on Bazu. I also admit they got pictures of me frolicking in the water and they are super embarrassing and funny.

I am so happy I did this race and I am already looking forward to tackling it next year.  This race was a PR for me since I've never done the distance before. So even though I didn't hit the goal I wanted, I have a PR.  It also means that I have something to train for and work towards beating next year.  This was a horrible race for me yet at the same time I'm happy with the outcome. I'm disappointed but also feel I showed strength I didn't even know I had.  It's hard to be too upset with that.

I'm FINALLY finished

Huge thanks to not only my friend who came out to cheer us on and ran the last loop with me (his family was rewarded with homemade ((from scratch!)) red velvet cupcakes) but also my other friends who waited around for me to finish.  Not only that, huge thanks to my Mom who came to the race with me and watched my daughter so that I could run this one.  I know she was worried about me out on the course and I'm glad she drove me home as I wouldn't have been able to do it myself.  I also need to say thanks to a friend who didn't realize the race would still be going on and came to the park to run and found my Mom.  It was awesome to be starting my 3rd loop and see my friend and her daughter cheering me on. What a wonderful surprise. 

The group of us who finished the 30k, proudly displaying our belt buckles

Rock in Roll Half Marathon 2012 - race recap

The 4 of us stuck together for most of the race (I'm in pink)

Whew!  This was my third race in three weeks.  Tough!   I won't say it's the hardest of the three because Tough Mudder was hard with the obstacles.  However in regards to just the running, this was the hardest of the three.  This one was hilly throughout the entire course. 

elevation for this race

At first the plan had been to just run this for fun. I knew several people running it and some of us were looking at is as just a fun group run.  As it got closer that changed a little bit.  The girl I ran the half marathon with on the 7th decided to run this one as well.  Then she was put in touch with somebody else who was running it and he was going to meet us at the race.  So I went from having no time goal to have a time goal faster than what I did my other half in.    Then I got a cold the week of.  Ugh.

So I went into the race knowing what I hoped to do but also knowing that this course was much harder and my body was still fighting the cold.  I planned to stick with a couple of people for as long as I could but if I needed to slow down, I told myself that would be ok. I would try to help pace them as long as I could.

So we start out as a big group, but soon it was just 4 of us sticking together.  One guy was pacing another girl at a faster pace for her to get a PR (personal record).  Three people were close in pace and one guy was doing the full while two were just doing the half, so they paced each other most of the way.   The four of us left were the slowest ones, but still doing an excellent pace.

I felt this one pretty early on.  It was HARD.  My legs were tired, I had that familiar "I'm going to puke" feeling on almost every uphill.  I knew we were pushing the pace right away but since I was running with others it was easier for me to keep going.  Eventually the girl and I were getting further behind the two guys.  On one straight we increased and got closer to them, but then I got slower on the next hill and they pulled ahead.  On another straight she asked if I felt I could catch them. I said no way, I was giving it all I had. However I pushed her to take off and catch them. 

mile splits

A mile or two later I saw one of the guys ahead of me. I made it my goal to catch him by the finish so we could run in together.  We were coming up on the finish, I was about 2 yards behind him.  Then it happened. I had to sprint over to the side of the road and puke. I was at mile 13.  I had .1 miles to go to the finish.  I was sooo upset.

I stopped my watch while I was puking. I then started my watch when I started to run again.  I basically sprinted to the finish.   According to my watch my finish time would have been 1:48:30.  This would have been a 14 second PR from my half two weeks ago.  As it is, my official finish time is 1:49:05.

14 seconds.  That isn't very long.  However it would have been a heck of a PR because this course is so much harder and my legs were not fresh like they were two weeks ago.   I have to say that I am disappointed I did not get a PR with this race but I still think I ran a great race and I did a hell of a job.  I'm very happy with my time and how it turned out. It's just hard to not be disappointed when the PR was so freaking close.

One of my friends that I talked to a couple days after the race, he said I should mark this one as a BPR*. Barf PR. haha!  I like that!   So we shall consider this one a PR still, but a BPR*.

comparison of the two half marathons, the one on the left is from 10/21 and the one on the right is 10/07

Tough Mudder 2013 - race recap

Getting ready to start the race (I'm in pink)

Tough Mudder was an awesome race. It's not for everyone, it's not for the person who doesn't like to get dirty or is afraid to be hurt.  Tough Mudder isn't a race, it's a challenge. That's what the company says. It's pretty accurate too.  It's not really how fast you can finish, it's about doing your best at the obstacles and making it to the end.

Tough Mudder Missouri was 11 miles long with 22 obstacles.  Some of the obstacles are hard and some not so much.  At least..not for somebody small like myself.  Crawling under barbed wire and through tunnels wasn't much of an issues just because I'm so small.  Trying to get over Berlin Walls, now that's another issue.

Leading up to this race I was terrified of the one titled Artic Enima.  For good reason, if you watch this video.  I HATE being cold.  I can't stand it. I'm miserable.  So to willingly jump into a dumpster that is filled with water and ice?  No thanks!  I did it though.  At first it wasn't too bad.  Then I went under the board and came up on the other side to find that it's mostly ice and not a lot of water. There was so much ice I could barely move. So cold my muscles barely worked. I had a hard time getting myself out of that one.

You can see how big the logs were

 

 

One of the challenges is titled Hold your Wood.  You have to carry a log/piece of wood through water and mud.  These things were heavy!  When we got to the wood pile I was walking around trying to find a small one (there weren't any) and made the comment: This is the first time I've ever wanted small wood.  A guy near me bust out laughing. haha!  He said something in return and we both laughed but I can't remember what he said.  Oh, and I did fall twice during this one, dropping the wood on my leg and foot.  Yikes!

Another challenge or obstacle had us going up a hill that was very muddy and not very easy. Ok, there were a lot of these.  This particular one I made it up with the help of one of the guys on my team and some others.  Once at the top I turned around to see if the person behind me needed help and noticed a guy on his stomach helping his other teammates up. He was sliding forward. I rushed over, squated down, and grabbed his ankle to keep him from sliding off.  He turned around to see who was holding his foot and thanked me.  Then the guys I was with finished helping some others up and came over to help this guy.  Once his team members were up and he stood up he thanked me again and said he felt himself slipping and then somebody grab his ankle and looked back and it was some itty bitty chick who couldn't weigh more than 100lbs and said that I really helped.   Later the girl I was with said she was near him after that challenge and he was talking to his friend about it and was surprised by how strong I was. haha!  That made me feel really good.

Let's see..the monkey bars. So upset about this one!  From the photo you can see that it's not straight monkey bars, you go up (very hard) and then down (easier).  I made it up and was working my way down. I was almost at the end, had one rung left to go, and my hands slipped and I fell into the water. I'm so mad! I almost made it!

The plank...it doesn't seem like it's that high.  Once you jump and start falling you get that free-fall feeling and, I admit, I freaked out a bit.

Everest banged me up the worst.  I ran and jumped and didn't catch any hands and fell back onto the half pipe, hitting my head and whole right side.  Major bruising!  It hurt so freaking bad that I got back in line and waited for several people to go before attempting it again. Luckily I made it the second time!

Enjoying our post-race beers

 Over-all I have to say that this race was awesome. I had the time of my life.  I can't remember the last time I had this much fun getting all dirty and challenging myself.  I'm bruised and my upper body was sore for a couple of days, but it was so worth it.  The race will be held in St. Louis in April and I'm already talking to people about forming a team and doing it again.  It's expensive, but so worth it!

Mo' Cowbell Half Marathon 2012 race report



The day before the race, picking up race packet. R is very
impressed with the cow mascot

 This past Sunday I raced in the Mo' Cowbell Half Marathon.  It was the second year for the race and my second year running it.  It was my third half marathon.

 I finished with a time of 1:48:11. 

That breaks down to an average pace of 8:18 min/mile.  That is 10 minutes FASTER than I ran this same race last year.  It's 30 minutes FASTER than I ran my first half marathon April of last year (2011).

I cannot tell you how incredibly happy I am with this race.  I not only gave birth to R five months before the race, I also had major health issues, which I went into in my pre-race blog post.  I have also never run that fast for any amount of distance. So to pull it off in a half marathon and feel amazing the entire time, it's just awesome.



The morning of the race, giving my
bib some good luck crinkles

 Several weeks ago a friend who works for a local running store and was pacing a training group contacted me and asked me if I would like to contact a girl who was running the half.  She felt our pace was going to be close and wondered if I would help pace the girl.  Sure!  So I contacted this other girl and her goal pace was 8:30.  At that time I was thinking 8:40.  But I said heck..if I'm running with somebody I might be able to pull it off.

Leading up to race day I had a couple of good long runs and felt confident I could pull off an 8:30 pace.  The course for this race is mostly flat and I train with some hills.  The problem is that the bigger hills are all at the end.   So I talked to the girl I would be running with and me made plans to run 8:30 for 5-6 miles, evaluate how we felt and increase pace to 8:20. 

Race day arrived and I'm feeling good.  I meet up with my running partner for the very first time and we head to the starting line.  We go out pretty fast, but we are both feeling good.  We are even chatting a bit.  Which probably pissed some people off because who can chat when racing?  I held us back, keeping us between an 8:20 and an 8:33 pace.  We felt good but I didn't want us to hit the wall and I knew we planned to kick it in at the end. 



Getting some good luck lovin' before the race

 There were several kids along the route who had their hands out for high-fives and I was feeling so good, I made sure to give them high-fives and say hi.  Smiling all the way.



This is the elevation, per my garmin, of the course.
So you can see where the hills are

 We finish mile 5 and start 6, both feeling good.  We each took a gel and increased pace a tad.  We got to the water station and I took a drink of water and then we kicked it in a bit more.  We know the hills are coming and we wanted to make up some time because we know we'll be slower when they arrive.

Hills come and we keep a pretty good pace, slower but we were able to manage it and we passed people the whole time.   We see a sign for mile 11 and look at each other and go..where did mile 10 go? 

We hit mile 12 and pretty much said..let's do this thing!  And increased paced a bit more. Mile 13 arrives and we both decide it's only one more mile, we've GOT this.  So we kept pace and tried to increase a bit.  We come down off the last down hill.  We knew it was flat to the finish.  We rounded a turn and can see the finish and I said something like "There it is..let's do this"  and we both kicked it in.  We gave it our all, sprinting as best as we could.  Which probably did not look like sprinting but after running 13 miles it's the best we could do.



Mile splits per my garmin

 We cross the finish line pretty much still together.  I then go a couple yards and made a mad dash to the side to puke.  It happens.  Well, it happens to me, rather often.  Unfortunately I was surrounded by other runners and spectators.  Ooops.  I finished and stood up and said "Sorry you all had to see that!"  Props to my new running buddy as she saw it happen and went and got water and brought it to me.  Nothing like introducing this to a person the first time you meet them.

I feel that maybe I was too conservative in the beginning because we did both feel sooo good the whole time.  However I also had the familiar "I think I'm going to puke" feeling at the end and I've realized that's a sign I've pushed my body.  I also felt my legs almost give out several times in the last two miles. So I think I did race this one very smart.  I also think that if we did go faster in the beginning, I might not have been able to keep up the pace or negative split the race. We did go faster than we originally planned but we were able to race it with negative splits like we wanted.  We not only beat our time goal, we CRUSHED it.   We did the last two miles under an 8 min pace!  That feels soo damn good.  Yes, we had downhills, but we also had uphills.  We both just gave it our all it and it payed off. 



At the finish line, after the puking, sharing my joy with R

 This is, by far, my best race. I raced it the smartest, I ran the fastest, I had a major PR.  On the drive home, Husband and I were talking about the race and he says "Do you think you could do an 8:05 pace next year?".  Here's what I love about that.  First, I didn't mention wanting to do more half marathons. Yes, I love to race so I would want to do more. But I didn't bring it up.  He just figured I would be doing it again next year and is on board with it already.  Second, look at that confidence.  He is not a runner. He doesn't totally understand how hard it is to get faster with the sport.  He does see how many hours I put in to it though.  He totally thinks I can pull off another major PR next year.    And you know what, maybe I can.  I never thought I could run a half this fast. I don't even run shorter distances this fast.  Now I know my body can though.   So Mo Cowbell half marathon, if you fit into my racing schedule next year, we're on. I'm going to smoke it.




My running buddy!  I couldn't have done it without her




I couldn't help sharing one last phot.  Giving R some love after
the race.