Saturday: Ringing in Hope 10k Race Report

I apparently never wrote this race report... Oops! If I think about it, I'll come back to put SOMETHING in here.

---------------------------------
Race report: 2 yrs later...

Um, not sure how I missed this race report! I loved that the start time was like 10:00am. Makes for a "relaxing" pre-race morning. Met up with Kathy & planned to run as much of it with her as possible. I hadn't really been training for this race & was a bit off my game.

The first 5k went well. People were running all over the place & running into cones. I took a honey stinger along with some water around the half way point. Around mile 5, I had to stop and stretch out my hip. As soon as I did, it popped and felt SO much better! Kathy had gone ahead while I stretched, so I got back to running & finished it up. I ran it in 1:01:50 (which Garmin Connect is telling me is a 10k personal best - I think it is for a stand-alone 10k). If I hadn't stopped to stretch, it would've been under an hour. Ah well.

Shortest race report ever. :)

Saturday - Hot Chocolate 15k Race Report

Hot Chocolate DC 15k Race Report (I have no pics from this race... ah well)

• Race Name: Hot Chocolate DC 15k
• Race Date: December 3, 2011
• Race Location: National Harbor, MD
• Race Distance: 15k (9.3 mi – measured 9.13 on GPS the day of)
• Division: 30-34
• Total Time: 1:29:37
• Time Breakdown: Split 1 – 21:33, Split 2 (at 10k) – 59:27
• Age Group Placing: 613/1638
• Overall Placing: 2982/7678 (women only)

Pre-race

Race registration was all online (this is pretty much the norm now, I think). As long as you registered early enough, you had no problems with registration. A few people tried to sign up closer to the race and the 5k race was closed, so there were complaints about that. When you registered, you had to select your jacket size, which they told you how to measure. This is important later for many people.

On Friday, we headed down to the National Harbor to do packet pickup. We left Tysons Corner (work) right around 3:00 and were at the National Harbor by 3:45. We checked into our hotel and then went to packet pickup. We went in, got our bibs, picked up our jackets, then walked around the expo for a little bit. It was mostly PRR selling stuff at the expo, so that was a bit weird with it being just one vendor, but it’s all good. I picked up a pair of Kinvara 2s that I’ve been meaning to make the trip to PRR for anyhow. We had dinner, met up with Nadia, then met up with Rachel later. We went to bed around 10 with the alarm set for 5:30.

The morning of the race, we walked the mile from our hotel to the race start. Since it was about a mile walk, we started out at 6:30am. This would turn out to be the biggest mistake we made all day, without knowing it. To give the race director a little bit of credit, they did emphasize that people needed to be there by 6:15, as they were closing roads at 6:30. People in the DC area, as always, didn’t account for traffic and it was a cluster. On that note, they should’ve never allowed people to park at National Harbor for this race. They should’ve shuttled everyone in. Also, they should’ve narrowed down the field to at least half of what they had. Had they done those two things, I think things would’ve gone a lot differently.

We were delayed an hour from our start. Mind you, the 15k was supposed to start at 8am. I had been standing outside from 6:30am in race tights and a long sleeve running shirt. I ditched my jacket in bag check at 7:15 because the 5k was supposed to start at 7:45 (they didn’t end up going until 8:20 or so). Total side note: there were PLENTY of port-a-potties in the after race area. The 15k ended up not going until 9:00. I had been outside for 2.5 hrs in very little clothing in 32-34 degree weather. By the time we started, my heart rate had been consistently in the 120s because I had been shivering so much. Since course maps had been provided, I knew we were headed to 210 and then back through where we started and into the National Harbor to run the 5k course before heading back to our start area. What I didn’t realize was that this was a lot hillier than I thought. Oops.

Run

This race is a hard one to write about. I was in a corral, so I didn’t seem to have a lot of the problems people later in the pack did. I found the course to be wide enough and mostly well staffed. I did have to get water off the table myself because by the time we returned to the water station, a couple of the volunteers had left. I didn’t think this was that horrible, so no real complaints. I took my gel at mile 5, took some water, and kept running. My legs actually felt really good for most of the race. Once I hit mile 7.5, my calves started to cramp up and I figured I might be in trouble a bit. I was definitely right… it wasn’t good! I seriously under-estimated the hills on this run and between the 2.5 hrs in the cold and the hills, my calves were shot. Training a bit more (like… at all) would’ve definitely helped me on this race.

Post-Race

Immediately after I finished the race, I was on the ground and massaging my calves to get them to stop contracting. I knew this was super important to get them to stop as soon as possible given my Achilles issues from 2009. I caught up with Rachel, Nadia, and Jon. Jon helped me massage my legs and stretch out some. We sent the ladies back to the hotel since they needed to pack up and check out. I got my hot chocolate and skipped the chocolate fondue. I just wanted real food. After about 45 minutes, we finally started the 1.5 miles back to the hotel. We stopped at Nando’s Peri-Peri for lunch. Chicken with mashed potatoes and cole slaw was just what I needed! Yum!

Summary and Lessons Learned

The worst part of this race was the lack of communication from the race officials and the waiting. The RAM organization seriously needs to look at what went wrong before returning to the DC area. Once we got started, I thought everything was fine, but again, I didn’t have the issues that apparently others did. I think that the field needed to be cut off at least half of what they had. Ultimately, I’d do the race again. We’ll see if they return.

Note: We were delayed an hour because of the traffic debacle that was the National Harbor this morning. If we hadn't been delayed, I would've loved this race instead of just liked it.

Sea Gull Century Ride

Sea Gull Century Ride

• Race Name: Sea Gull Century Ride
• Race Date: October 15, 2011
• Race Location: Salisbury University
• Race Distance: 102 mile bike
• Total Time: 6:29:43 moving time; 8:30:14 overall
• Average Speed: 15.7 mph moving speed; 15.4 overall speed

Pre-ride

The registration for the ride was done online, mail-in, or in person. We did online at $67.95 each. For a charity ride, I thought that was pretty good – especially with 4 rest stops. The ride was very well organized, well marked, and well supported. This is their 23^rd year, so they definitely have it figured out. The volunteers were amazing. They made sure that all of the water, Gatorade, and food was well stocked. There were a good number of port-a-potties, but with 8000+ riders, there were lines. Nothing they could really do about that. Course maps were provided online and in our ride packets. The course was also really well marked.

That morning, we had the “high carb” breakfast at the cafeteria; pancakes, hash browns, bacon, and juice for me.

The weather was pretty good; a bit chilly in the morning, but definitely nice. We started out with arm warmers, leg warmers, and full gloves.

Bike

The road was in really good condition. You never know what to expect over 100 miles of road, a huge loop course. For the most part, the roads were pretty flat; only a couple of minor hills. The course wasn’t closed to traffic. In general, that was ok. The roads to and from Assateague Island National Park was NOT fun. There was so much traffic in and out of there. Plus, the wind was starting to pick up as we headed towards the island.

Rest stop 1:

Rest stop 2:

Rest stop 3:

There were 4 rest stops. They were fantastic. We didn’t stay horribly long at the first two, just long enough to refill water bottles and use the bathroom at each. I had my honey stingers gels with me, which was good. The Perpetuem drink mix didn’t agree with me all that much. At the third rest stop, we sat for a bit longer to eat, refill drinks, and just chill out. At the fourth rest stop, we definitely stopped a while longer than the other stops. We had been fighting the wind for a solid 25 miles by that point and just needed a rest.

Rest stop 4:

I think next time, I’ll definitely train a good bit more. Our longest training ride was only 40 miles and that had been a few months before, so we really weren’t prepared. My legs were perfectly fine over the 100 miles, it was my posterior that I was having issues with.

Finish line:

Post-Ride

After the ride, we went and got our participant shirts, then headed back to the car. We put the bikes on the car, changed out of our bike shoes, grabbed our “post-ride clothes” and headed to the bathrooms to change into different clothes. After that, we decided to grab dinner at a local mall, which was good. I felt surprisingly good after the ride! The photos were up about a week later, which was perfectly fine!

Summary and Lessons Learned

This is the first time I’ve ever finished an event that I’m not sure I how I feel about it after. I think it would’ve been better without the 40 miles of headwinds and with some training. It wasn’t a bad ride at all though. Mentally, I learned I’m a lot tougher than I thought, which has given me a much better outlook for next year’s 70.3.

Giant Acorn International Tri

Giant Acorn International Tri Race Report

• Race Name: Giant Acorn International Triathlon
• Race Date: October 1, 2011
• Race Location: Bumpass, VA
• Race Distance: distance  (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run)
• Division: W 30-34
• Total Time: 3:09:32
• Time Breakdown: Swim – 35:36, T1 –5:58, Bike – 1:25:28, T2 – 3:25, Run – 58;46
• Age Group Placing: 23/32
• Overall Placing: 184/258 (women only)

Pre-race

Registration was online and was $95.40. Considering I registered for this about 2 months before the race due to TriRock Gettysburg Olympic being canceled, I thought that the fees were decent. I really like the Setup Events group. Both of the races I’ve done that they’ve organized have gone smoothly. The volunteers were great. There were even 2 on the bike course specifically to warn people about a metal grate on a bridge! Pre-race, I got my number, cap, and bag and then went to set up transition. Also in the bag was the shirt and socks (again!). Love the design of the shirt, it was super cute.

They kept the music down for the most part to not disturb people living on the lake, which I thought was nice. They had port-a-potties in several locations, so not everyone was standing in one line, which was pretty helpful. Course maps were provided online and again the week before in our race information packet. The race venue was really nice. One of the prettier I’ve done all season.

We got up at 5:30 or so, left Fredericksburg at 6, stopped at McDonalds for breakfast (I had the fruit and maple oatmeal), and were at the race site by 7, just a wee bit early for a 10am race. Ah well. It gave me plenty of time to use the restroom, get acclimated to the cold and wind, and do packet pickup. There were close to 800 registered, so being there early wasn’t a bad thing!

Swim

The water in Lake Anna was warm – a wonderful 73 degrees, so still wetsuit legal – and also pretty choppy. The power plant that normally heats the lake has been turned off since our earthquake a few months ago, but the water was only 3 degrees cooler than last year, so that was good. The sun was horrible during the middle stretch for all of the right handed breathers. Then again, if you were a left breather, you were taking in water the entire time we were on this stretch. I managed to get way off course on the first part of the course, sighting on the yellow turn buoy instead of the orange ones. Oops. It was ok, I managed to get back on course and still pulled off very close to my estimated time. The last 100m was the worst. I had this guy who swam straight into me and wouldn’t get out of my way. I had to push to pass him just to stop getting hit/kicked. Just annoying when I spent the rest of the time pretty much not having too many of those types of issues. The biggest thing I could’ve done to improve my swim was stay on course!

Bike

The roads were pretty good. There was one part that was pretty bumpy, but nothing major, no potholes to speak of. The course wasn’t closed to traffic, but for the most part, the roads aren’t heavily used, so there were only a few cars. It was a double loop course of about 12 miles each, no food/water stops. I took in shot blox in T1 and then one honey stinger gel toward the end of the bike ride.

I met my goal on the ride. My entire goal was just to do it, save my legs for the run, and to enjoy it. Sometimes, I looked down and was doing 13mph. A bit too slow for a race, but I was taking in the scenery. I averaged just about 17.5 mph over the course, so that’s not too bad. I know I have plenty of room to grow with strength on the bike, but considering my first race this year’s average pace was just under 15 mph, I’m happy with the strength I’ve gained this season.

Run

In T2, I couldn’t get my Garmin to cooperate, so I brought my swim watch with me instead. I’ve decided this might be the way to go during a race. It allowed me to concentrate on overall time instead of obsessing about how fast I was going that very second.

My legs felt surprisingly good. The longest brick I had done was a 25 mile bike ride followed by a 2.5 mile run. Not really a great indicator of what would happen in the race, but it was pretty good. This is the first run that I didn’t really feel like I had Jell-O legs… they felt strong the entire 10k.

I’ve decided I like wearing my headsweats visor during the runs. It really does help keep the sweat out of my eyes. There were 2 water stations, 1 of them you hit on the way out and back. I think three stations over 3 miles is pretty good (it was a double loop course). The course was definitely rolling hills, which normally I would’ve hated, but I loved it this race. It wasn’t easy, per se, but it wasn’t hard either. There were a lot of athletes really struggling. Several with muscles that were cramping, breathing too hard, looked like they were going to puke, etc. I was just happy I had planned out my bike so that I wasn’t one of those people!

One of the best things was seeing Jon after I came out of the woods and him telling me that the finish line was literally down the hill and he’d meet up with me after and then seeing Tracy as I came through the chute. The first thing out of her mouth was “Do you want to cry? I want to cry for you, I’m so proud of you!” I did want to cry, in the happiest sense. I had that “The world is mine today” smile on my face again.

Transitions

Was everything ready for you and in place just like you wanted it to be? What could you have done to improve your transitions?

T1 was horrible for me. The buckle on my bike shoe came off of the top part of the shoe and I spent way too long fussing with it. Should’ve jumped to my conclusion earlier – just put the buckle in as far as it’ll go and GO! No problems with the wetsuit, which was good.

T2 wasn’t bad. The main problem I had was re-racking my bike. The other athletes on my rack didn’t re-rack their bikes correctly and it just made for a difficult time. Part of the problem was the guy 2 down from me, just didn’t set up his transition area efficiently, screwing up pretty much everyone else. Anyhow, bike stuff off; hat, run belt, and shoes on, and out I went.

Post-Race

I felt like a million bucks at the end of the race. I was so happy with my performance. It wasn’t the fastest of times in the world (or even as fast as I could’ve done), but it was exactly what I needed to close out my first tri season. After the race, Tracy and I packed up, went to the cars, changed, and met back up. Apparently the food station ran out of pizza and subs, so I didn’t even bother to try to get anything. Thankfully, I had a Honey Stinger waffle, so I snacked on that until we could get to a place for lunch.

Race results were posted later that night, which was super fast. The photos followed a couple of days later. The distances seemed accurate, and the race officials fair. It’s a good thing they weren’t really handing out drafting penalties on the bike, there were quite a few places you just couldn’t help it with that many people around.

Summary and Lessons Learned

I accomplished everything I set out to in this race. The main goal was to finish before cut-off. Cut-off was 4 hrs from start time for the first loop of the run. Finishing in just over 3 hours, I had plenty of time. I figured setting that kind of goal, I wasn’t setting myself up for disappointment in any sense and it’d allow me to enjoy the race. Sometimes, setting a “just finish” goal is better than any time goal because it relieves the pressure. The only thing I wish I would’ve done differently is the dealing with my bike shoe. It is what it is though. I’ll know next time!

Dog Days Sprint Tri: Ashburn, VA

Pictures to come

Dog Days Sprint Tri Race Report

• Race Name: Dog Days Sprint Tri
• Race Date: August 7, 2011
• Race Location: Ashburn, VA
• Race Distance: Sprint  (400m swim,12 mi bike, 5k run)
• Division: F 30-34
• Total Time: 1:27:03
• Time Breakdown: Swim – 9:02, T1 – 3:09, Bike – 41:29, T2 – 1:53, Run – 31:32
• Age Group Placing: 13/32
• Overall Placing: 48/148 (women only)

Pre-race

Race registration was online only and was fine. The race was $85 originally. I got a discount for doing both of their races. The course maps were available online and at packet pick-up. Packet pick-up for this race was pretty good, annoying because you had to bring your bike & helmet to pick-up to be checked, so everyone’s standing around with their bikes & helmets trying to walk through the line to get their packets, again. Also, the first table, where they checked your id and USAT membership, they had divided into 2 lines, alphabetically… except, none of us knew that, again! You only figured it out once you got to the table. The swag was ok, t-shirt, water bottle, a fizz tablet, and a lot of paper.

The race was pretty well organized. There were plenty of volunteers and officers on the course, which was great. The bathrooms at the start/transition/finish were in the pool house, which seemed to be fine. There weren’t really any pre-race activities, which was fine.

The race was at the Broadlands pool. The transitions were long again, but I was prepared for that this time. The bike course was local roads and the run was on a neighborhood trail.

Race morning, I got up around 5:00, got dressed, ate breakfast, put everything in the car, and headed out. We got to the parking area at around 5:45. We started the walk to the transition area, got my timing chip, did body marking, and went into transition. I got in, set up my bike and all of the other stuff, and had plenty of time to relax. The weather was ok, mid 70s with a LOT of humidity. It made the race really difficult. There were about 300 people there, which turned out to be a nice size.

Swim

Today’s swim was a 400m snake swim in a 50m pool. The pool water felt great, especially since the humidity was making it feel a lot warmer than it was. Obviously, no wetsuits for this swim. I didn’t do the warm-up for this race, mostly because by the time I started, the warm-up would’ve worn off. I wore clear goggles for this race. I got passed by one person. I felt better coming out of the water this time. It was a long run into transition and I got reoriented pretty quickly.

I feel like the work I’ve been doing on my swimming has been paying off. Now to keep at it!

Bike

The course was a double loop, some hills course. They had the right lane closed to traffic, which was great. In the June race on the same course, I had a car pull out in front of me despite police direction. In this race, I had a car pull out in front of me AGAIN! And again, it was despite police direction. Thankfully I was paying attention and anticipated her idiocy. I was going 23 mph, slightly downhill, and would’ve t-boned her and ended up worse for the wear than her car. At least she pulled into the correct lane. I still have some hill work to do, but I’m getting more confident in my bike handling. The longer I spend on it, the more comfortable I get.

Run

This run was awful. Even coming out of T2, I felt like hell. It was so humid out, I couldn’t get my breathing to slow at all. I ended up walking one minute of each mile just to get my breath. I also felt like I was going to puke for at least the last 2 miles of the run. It was not a good run at all. Still need to do more BRICKs, but apparently, I need to start running in the middle of the day or in the afternoon, even when it’s nasty humid out.

Transitions

The transitions went pretty well. I managed to cut some time off of T1 from June. T2 went well – I remembered to throw the watch on as I’m running out of T2 instead of waiting for it to do its thing while I’m in transition. I also had both GPS units get the satellites before the race, so I think that helped. Next race, I may just throw on the swim watch and wear it for the entire race.

Post-Race

I felt like crap after the race. My entire body felt drained, and not in a good way.

As soon as I was finished the race, I was handed a bottle of water and declined the smoothie. I found the table of bananas and assorted carbs, grabbed a banana and came back later for a bagel. They were posting the results every 15 minutes or so, so that was nice. We left before the awards ceremony. The distances were all accurate. The race officials were fair; two DQs because they only did one loop on the bike course.

Official race results were posted that night. No word of when the race photos will be posted.

Summary and Lessons Learned

I had a really bad week the week before the race. All of my workouts felt like I was putting in so much more effort than I probably was, and I was just dragging. With the humidity, it just made that feeling worse. This is the first time that I could’ve DNF’d and been ok with it. I’m getting more confident on my bike, but there’s work to be done there too. All in due time.

Tri-Forces Sprint Triathlon turned Aquathon

Tri-Forces Sprint Triathlon Race Report

• Race Name: Tri-Forces Sprint Triathlon turned Aquathon
• Race Date: June 18, 2011
• Race Location: North Beach, MD
• Race Distance: Sprint  (planned to be 750m swim,12.35 mi bike, 5k run – turned into 5k run, 750m swim, 5k run)
• Division: F 30-39
• Total Time: 1:22:50
• Time Breakdown: weren’t given for this race
• Age Group Placing: 4/9
• Overall Placing: 35/59 (overall) 15/29 (female)

Pre-race

Registration was online and went just fine and the fees were reasonable. The race was definitely not organized well. Before the race, the race organizers really needed to pass along information in a timely manner. Also, the website should’ve been updated with the most current information so that the few links they posted just a few days before the race and the rest of the website matched up. There was a lot of conflicting information. Thankfully, the course maps were provided online and updated as needed.

The night before the race, there were two sets of storms that came through that ended up putting trees and debris all over the roads of Calvert County. Because of this, the bike leg was in danger of being canceled. Instead of just making the call Friday night, many people worked through the night trying to clean up as much of the course as they could. At 2:30am, we got an email stating that they were still working on everything. By 5:30, they should’ve have had a definite answer, but they were still up in the air. I know no one wants to make a call like that, but then that left them scrambling to figure out the set up for a run-swim-run when they finally did make the call.

In the latest pre-race updates, packet pick-up was supposed to start at 5:30am. It still wasn’t ready by 6:15. That was super annoying. I understand that many of the race officials had been up prior to the race dealing with the presents that were left by the weather, but things like “do you have the race bibs?!” shouldn’t have been an issue. There was also no direction about the bike racks (which were being used for our wetsuits instead of our bikes) and where people should be setting up. When I finally did check in, no one checked my ID or my USAT card. The swag bag was “eh”, nothing special. They have lots of small things to fix. I’m not sure if I’ll race it again or not.

There were a good number of volunteers. They probably could’ve used a few more, but it was good. There were two port-a-potties, but that seemed to be enough. It was a REALLY small race, only 59 people finished. There were so many people who didn’t start or chose not to finish, so I’m not sure what the actual number of people who were registered and probably would’ve done the race had it stayed a triathlon.

Setting up transition was odd since there was no bike to set up. The weather was great, nice and sunny. The humidity was a little high, but nothing horrible. They did the pre-race warm-up (I find these pretty useless, so I didn’t participate). We had our last briefing before the race and then lined up. This was the second race this year that there was no National Anthem. Weird, very weird.

Run 1

Run 1 (aka: the start of the race) was great! I wasn’t sure how to approach the run since I haven’t run 10k since October 2009, right as I was injured. I decided just to take it easy and let the run happen as it was going to. I think my average pace was about 9:42, which wasn’t too bad. It was a pretty flat course, so that helped a lot!

There was one water station about half-way through, which was good. They even had COLD water! No hat today, though it might have been nice to have a visor.

Swim

When they measured the water temperature in the Chesapeake Bay in the morning, it said 78 degrees. I think that was the surface temperature. It was probably more like 74. The swim was definitely wetsuit legal, but we were STRONGLY encouraged to not use it since we’d be swimming after the run and it might lead us to dehydration. I wouldn’t have been able to put on a wetsuit after a run if I had tried. Thankfully, getting in the water was a bit refreshing!

The water was super calm, which was nice since it gave everyone time to calm their breathing down from the run. My goggles fogged up, which made it difficult to see… especially the green turn-around bouy. It was sunny, but I’m glad I didn’t wear my tinted goggles, as I’m not sure I would’ve been able to see the green bouy at all.

I was actually really happy with this swim. I’m sure there’s tons of room for improvement, but it was 750m, open water, with no wetsuit. I finished it, and it was great!

Right before we reached shore, there was a bulkhead under water. Guess who ran into it?! I did… along with several others (according to my family). That made my knee a bit sore and distracted me a little from how I was feeling otherwise. I was just glad to be done and on land again!

Run 2

Run 2 was pretty good too. Again, I wasn’t too sure how to approach it since it was basically the second half of a 10k. That being said, after the swim and hitting my knee, I knew my first mile was going to be a bit slower than I wanted it to be since my knee was sore. Other than that, my legs actually felt pretty good! I averaged about 9:45 for the second 5k, which is only a minute slower than my stand-alone 5k time, so that’s good in my book!

Transitions

The transitions for this race were a little odd given that it wasn’t at all the race I thought I was doing. Both went well – it was just weird! I could’ve probably sped it up a bit, but it wasn’t really a race I was doing for time, so it didn’t matter all that much.

Post-Race

I felt great at the finish line! I probably could’ve run the second run harder, but that’s ok. This event was all about showing my family what it is that I do. There were plenty of food and drinks (especially since Vita-Coco was sponsoring the event). The awards sucked (quite frankly). The race director flat out admitted that they ran out of funding for the awards and that was why they lumped the age groups the way they did. The race results didn’t get to us until Tuesday, June 21, 3 days after the race. The distances were off a little bit, but not by anything worth really noting (.1 on the run, not sure about the swim).

Summary and Lessons Learned

I was glad that I was flexible enough to stay and do the race. While the race coordinator was pretty disorganized, the run course was nice and the swim wasn’t bad either! I need to remember to dip my goggles before the swim. They almost always fog up. Who knows if I’ll do this race again, but I’m glad that I did it this time.