Clearwater Distance Classic Race Report

Digging out of this monstrous blizzard seems like a good time to reflect on my time spent in Florida last weekend!  Warning, this is going to be a picture-heavy post.  Of pictures of warm, sunny Florida.  Brace yourselves!

Last weekend I went to the Tampa area to go visit Jaimee.  We used to run together at lunch when she worked at Putnam, until she moved a couple years ago.  We decided to book my long weekend around a race, and set our sights on the Clearwater Distance Classic, but little did I know I'd go and sprain my ankle right before the trip!  I got there Friday afternoon, and after a quick stop at her house, she and her boyfriend James took me out sightseeing.  James is Welsh and works for the UK military, so I will hereby refer to him as James Bond.  They live in Tarpon Springs, a Greek fishing village.  We drove through there and then down to Clearwater, where we did some shopping, eating, and walking on the beach.

Meal #1: Grouper topped with crab meat, asparagus, and hollandaise sauce

Do these colors look unusually vibrant to you?  I thought so.  In fact, they probably thought I was high because I kept saying, "the sky is so blue!" and "everything is so bright!".

Saturday, Jaimee and I went for a short 2 mile run so that I could test my ankle (and running in the warmer weather).  It held up pretty well, so I decided running Sunday was a go.  I knew I wouldn't be racing because my ankle was still pretty swollen and tender, but just taking my time on a leisurely run.  After our run, we went up to Crystal River to go swimming with manatees with a tour group called Birds Underwater.  They have several tours daily and what we should have done was head out early on the 6am tour, but after a long day of traveling, I knew I wasn't going to be waking up too early Saturday morning.  When we got to Crystal River we really started regretting that decision though, because of all days, it just happened to be a Manatee Festival going on!  There were thousands of people all over the place, with tons of extra people and boats on the water.  Definitely not ideal conditions for seeing manatees, but despite all the extra traffic we did end up swimming with a bunch of them.  We had a really cool tour guide who found some hidden gems for us.  I was really hoping to interact with the manatees but most of them were sleeping so all we could do was watch them from a respectable distance.  It was a great experience though!

On our way back from Crystal River we stopped at a farm stand.  That might be my favorite thing about Florida... all the fresh fruit and farm stands!  Then we took a detour through Hudson, Florida, so that I could tell Mom I went to Hudson.  Reason being, that's where her horse Hudson came from.  We tried to find horse farms but all we could manage to find were golf courses.  After a long day of driving and swimming, we cleaned up and headed to Tarpon Springs for dinner.  Where, of all things, there was a craft festival going on.  We really seemed to have a knack for turning up at places at the most hectic times.  After about an hour we got into Hella's for dinner, which is a delicious Greek restaurant.  My pre-race dinner consisted of pita bread, hummus, and stuffed grape leaves.  I had no idea how this would turn out the next day, but didn't really care at the time!

Sunday morning we got up super early to head to Clearwater for the race.  It was still dark when we got there.  In fact, sunrise wasn't until about 7:20am, 15 minutes after the race started!  I had a mild heart attack when I saw the bridge we had to run over:

Although it wasn't very warm for Florida's standards (about 60 degrees at the start), that's tropical for me so I opted for a tee-shirt and shorts.  I was amazed at how many people were bundled up!  This is a unique race that offers many different distance options, everything from the 5K to the ultra marathon.  I'm glad we only signed up for the 5 miler, because anything over that I would've had to cancel.  James (Bond) was supposed to run the race with us but ended up being up all night with a sick dog, so he stayed back.

Pre-race photo

 With the exception of the 5k, all other distances started at the same time.  This was interesting because you really couldn't gauge your pace by those around you since they might have been running longer.  I started closer to the back than I should have, and got stuck in some seriously thick crowds at the beginning.  I worked my way around a lot of them, and by the time I got to the bridge I had room to breathe.  I brought my phone with me so that I would be forced to stop and take pictures and not worry about my slow pace.

Going up the bridge

Entering Clearwater Beach.

 We ran past the Clearwater Aquarium, which is apparently home to the dolphin with the prosthetic tale from the movie Dolphin Tale.

After going over the causeway, we went a short ways down a road before doing a U-turn and heading back.  By this time I was dripping sweat and really wishing for water stop.  My only complaint of the race is that the water stop didn't show up until mile 3.5.  On the return trip over the causeway we were treated to this gorgeous sunrise:

Just after taking this picture of the sunrise, we had to go back up and over the bridge, we seemed much bigger on the way back.  I kept telling myself it was okay if I wanted to walk, but my pride made me keep going forward.  In fact, I chanted this all the way up the hill:

One
Foot
In front of
The other
(left, right, left, right)
One
Foot
In front of
The other

My favorite part of the race had to be on the way back, we were running on a pedestrian walk way rather than the highway, and to get back down off the bridge onto ground level, we had to run down a tight spiral ramp, for at least two full rotations, maybe more.  It was really fun!  I wanted to take a picture of it but the tightness of the turns made visibility very limited and I didn't want to get nailed by a runner.  Back down to sea level, I ran straight into the finish where the announcer said my name and exclaimed, "all the way from Massachusetts!".

I was impressed that a 5 mile race handed out finisher medals, and even more impressed at the post-race feast!  There were tons of food, breakfast type snacks, coconut water, soda, and beer!  I don't ever hardly ever very often always drink beer for breakfast at 8am, but if I do, I make it a balanced breakfast with coconut water.

The post-race vibe was great.  An announcer kept the crowd excited, along with music, food, spectators, and vendors.  A stage was set up for a band but we didn't stick around long enough to hear it.  We left before awards, which stinks because Jaimee took 3rd in our age group!  I know I said I only had one complaint about this race but actually I have another.  This race awarded by gun time rather than chip time, which was unusual and strange to me especially with the mass start for all distances.  It didn't really impact me all that much because I had no intention of racing for an age group award, but it put Jaimee at a big disadvantage.  We started so far in the back that it took exactly two minutes to cross the start line.  If we had started closer to the front, Jaimee would have been in at least 2nd place.

After the race we headed back home and sobered up a bit with coffee in the hot tub.

Then James Bond took us out on his boat!  It wasn't great boat weather, 60's and cloudy, but who cares.  I'm on a boat in January in the Gulf of Mexico.  I win.

James keeps his boat in a marina, and I've never seen anything like it.  This brings valet service to a whole new level.

We had the cooler packed, the dog packed, and a few extra layers for the chilly ride.

 Boating is one of Warren's favorite things.

I know it looks like we were in Alaska, but it really wasn't cold once we stopped!  The sun even finally peeked out and it was comfortable.  Plus the beer helped.

James Bond and his partner Warren headed to the nearby island for a super secret mission.

Warren got the towel.

Action shot of me steering the boat near Honeymoon Island.  As you can see by the lack of wake, I wasn't actually steering it anywhere.

After boating we went to a local bar to watch the NFC Championship game.  Then headed home and watched the Patriots slaughter the Colts!

Monday was a perfect Florida day and we spent my last day, and all of my money, at Busch Gardens.  Sticker shock was an understatement.  $100 to walk in, $8 beers, and let's not even talk about how much it costs to feed the animals there.  Still, a fun time and great last day of my vacation.  And sticking to the theme of going places on the busiest possible day, we ended up at Busch Gardens on Martin Luther King Day, where schools were out and every teenager in Florida was at Busch Gardens.  Here's just a whole bunch of animal pictures:

$7 for that tiny cup of nectar!

We spent my last night in Florida in Palm Harbor, for a nice seafood meal and a little pub crawling.  Great end to a long weekend, and I can't wait to go back!

Southbound!

My favorite thing about flying is using the on-board WiFi.  Sure sometimes it's a bit spotty but really, I'm cruising along at 470 mph, 38,000 feet above sea level, watching episodes of Drunk History, Facebooking, and reading my Kindle.  I can't complain, even if the signal is a tad bit slow.  Which reminds me, if you've never seen it, check out this hilarious video of Louis CK's take on flying.  (NSFW! {Not suitable for work} [or for people that don't like swears]).

So I figured while I'm here on my magical air ride to sunny Florida, I'd give a quick ankle update.  First of all, thank you to everyone who expressed concern and followed up with me to see how the ankle was doing.  I will tell you this: Kids, don't do what I do.  I'm thinking that not going to the doctor was probably the wrong choice, although I seem to be doing okay now.  I had really been on the fence about seeing a doctor because it did seem like more than just an ankle sprain.

On Saturday, 8 days after the injury, I tried running.  I had been walking okay, and even though the ankle was still swollen and tender, I wanted to see if I even had a small chance of being able to race this weekend. I did a very slow walk/jog 1 mile.  While running it honestly wasn't that bad.  A little tender, and my ankle is definitely unstable, but not horrible.  After sitting for about an hour I went to stand up and it killed!  Ouch!  So, I waited a few more days, and then tried another run on Tuesday.  By this time the ankle was less swollen and tender.  I wrapped it up well, ran 2 slow miles on the treadmill, and immediately iced it after.  No problem!  Wednesday I did the the same, a little faster, and without ice.  It definitely seems to be getting better, although it's very unstable feeling and especially tender when I do any "pushing off" motion.  Looks like hills and trails are out of the question!

I know you're probably wondering why I don't just leave it alone, but for me, this is leaving it alone!  Just a couple of runs and a bit of cycling is all I have done in the last couple weeks, and I really wanted to see if I had any shot of running my 5 mile race this weekend.  Based on my last couple days I'd say I have a good shot.  I'll just take it easy, walk if I have to, and enjoy being in Florida!  My trip is much more than just running the Clearwater Distance Classic anyways.  Apparently we're going to be swimming with manatees and maybe going on a dolphin tour!

As much as I don't like trudging to the airport at 5am, the view is pretty awesome flying south, when you're sitting on the left side of the plane!

The only draw back is that the sun is reeeally hot and I feel like a bug under a microscope sitting next to the window.

Stay tuned for more updates from Florida, where I will do my best to take a selfie with a manatee!!

2015: End of my injury-free streak

Well, here's how my new year started.  I was planning on doing a 2014 recap blog post, either a "top 10" or a "best of" or something along those lines.  I had loose ideas in my head.  I planned to highlight my 365 days of being uninjured as my biggest accomplishment.  2014 had started off with the New Year's 5K, and my bib # 180 was my symbol of things to come.  I had high hopes for 2014, wishing for a complete "180" of my recent string of injury plagued years.  And it worked!  2014 was a really solid year for me.  Maybe my overall mileage wasn't too high, but I managed to squeeze in a marathon (you know, that one that ends in Boston!), a half iron triathlon, and lots of cross training and horseback riding.

I thought of these accomplishments this year on New Year's, when I went back and ran the same race about 40 seconds faster even though I was "taking it easy".  That's a testament of a good year of training!

I was also very inspired by friend and club member Cort, who did a 365 day run streak in 2014.  I wondered, could I do something like that?  Realistically probably not, because I'm a well documented commitment-phobe, not to mention lazy.  But, if I couldn't commit to 365 days, I wonder how long I could keep a streak going?  So on January 2, I went for a run.  I figured, what better time to start an informal streak than the beginning of the year.  I wouldn't tell anyone.  I wouldn't make a big thing about it and then be subject to pressure and nay-sayers.  I'd just silently see how far I could make the streak.

The answer was 2.  Or, 1.5 really.  I ran 1.5 times before my run streak ended on a trail 3/4 of a mile from home, with me screaming and thrashing about like a lunatic in the pine grove.  Proof:

I was pretty bummed out about this.  I have been haunting poor Julia for a good 4 months to run with me.  She finally was able to squeeze in an hour during my lunch break on a day I happened to be working from home, and we decided to go for a super easy trail run and just chit chat and catch up on life.  We were having such a great time, until this happened.  Later when I told my mother about what happened, she said, "poor Julia, she must have been so upset".  Ummm, I think I was probably a little more upset!  

After several minutes of me crying on the ground, Julia gingerly peeked at my ankle.  It was bad.  Immediately swollen and purple.  I was blacking out from the pain and was overcome with nausea, but finally I got to my feet.  We were thinking of ways I could get extracted from the trail, but eventually I was able to put some weight on my foot and declared I was able to walk home.  It was a slow, painful, chilly walk back but we tried to think positive.  I could bear weight on it, so it's not broken, right?

I spent the rest of the day with my foot elevated and iced, popped some serious Motrin, and tried to remain calm.  I was actually kind of proud of myself for being such a grown up about it and not declaring my life to be over.  I was really on the fence about going to the ER for x-rays, so I did my famous "let's just wait a day and see how it looks".  I was pretty certain it was just a bad ankle sprain, but I did have some concern about a hairline fracture.  In the middle of the night my foot swelled up much worse and I was unable to even walk to the bathroom, so that was pretty scary.  More elevation, more ice, more Motrin.  By the next morning it wasn't as bad so I figured I'm going in the right direction.  Again, I felt like such a grown up for not flipping out.  Julia called me, worried that I was actually underreacting to the injury.  I continued to be on the fence about going to the ER, but decided to prep myself by showering and I'd think it over while I was in there.  Well, thanks to a plumbing disaster my bathroom flooded with nothing you want to imagine, and I spent the afternoon cleaning up that nightmare.  So I figured, "let's just wait a day and see how it looks".

After a few days the swelling has gone down quite a bit, I have some lovely coloring in various places, and I'm walking quite well.  I have almost full range of motion, although it's still very tender to the touch.  Running has quite obviously been out of the question but I have been able to cycle pretty well with minimal pain.  The timing is a little bit of a nuisance because I had just booked a trip to Clearwater Florida for next weekend, to visit a friend and run the Clearwater Distance Classic 5 miler.  I'm trying not to stress out about it too much.  Obviously I very much want to be able to run the race, but it's not really life-altering if I miss it.  Either way I'll be in Florida, and what do they say?  A bad day in Florida beats a good day anywhere else, or something like that?

I haven't yet returned to the crash site to investigate, but honestly it was a very easy trail.  I must have let my guard down and just stepped on a root or something uneven that caused the ankle to roll so severely.  It's a historically weak ankle, so this is a clear sign that I need some serious ankle support once I get back out there.

So, my informal run streak officially ended at 2.  On a positive note, I've set the bar pretty darn low, even for my standards.  I guess I should just be happy it happened on day 2 and not day 363!

Turkey recap and little known facts about me

How's everyone doing after the big feast?!  I proudly maintained decent portion control during dinner, most likely because I drank seltzer with my meal which filled me up, so I woke up without regret!  (But with a sore throat, boo).  Yesterday was a good Thanksgiving.  After a little snowstorm Wednesday night, the roads got cleaned up in time for the annual Whitin Five road race.  Temps around 30, clear roads and no wind made for great race conditions!  I really enjoyed myself and ran at a "I'm enjoying this run" mixed with "it hurts a little but I'm not dying" pace.

It was also my first outdoor run with my amazing new watch that I'm completely obsessed with: The Garmin 920xt.

Rather massive looking on my tiny wrist

I was so afraid I was going to have an operator error and hit a wrong button or accidentally delete my data, but it all worked out great!  More on my love affair with this watch in an upcoming post.

After the race I headed home to make a deadly sangria concoction.

Luckily some friends came over after dinner to help me drink it because my family was afraid of it.  It was amazing.

Things you never knew about me (and most likely don't care)
I'm stealing this from the Shut Up + Run blog...kind of a cute idea to share some random information about myself.

Four names that people call me other than my real name:

1. Jilly
2. Jilly bean
3. Ma
4. Shorty

Four jobs I've had:
1. Cashier at Cumberland Farms (when I was an Art major in college)
2. Horse stall mucker (in high school, when I was dreaming of becoming an Art major in college)
3. Horseback riding instructor (when I realized I wasn't going to make a living selling artwork)
4. Operations manager (when my heart turned to stone)

Four movies I've watched more than once:
1. Bourne Identity
2. Forrest Gump
3. Twilight
4. Good Will Hunting

Four books I'd recommend:
1. Gone Girl
2. The Hunger Games series
3. The DD Warren Series by Lisa Gardner
4. The One Good Thing

Four places I've lived:
1. Massachusetts (I don't get out much)

Four places I've visited:
1. Iceland
2. Ireland
3. Nova Scotia
4. Niagara Falls

Four things I prefer not to eat:
1. Onions
2. Moldy things (except some cheese)
3. There must be something else...
4. Nope, that's it.  Just onions and some moldy things.

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Mom's cranberry coffee cake
2. bread things
3. cheese things
4. pasta things

Four TV shows I watch:
1. CSI
2. NCIS
3. Criminal Minds
4. Scorpion

Four things I'm looking forward to this year:
1. Spending more time with my Garmin 920xt.
2. Road trippin' to some races
3. Going to the Kenny Chesney concert!
4. More camping

Four things I'm always saying:
1. I'm starving
2. It's freezing in here
3. I'm literally dying I'm so hot
4. Hey Cat Face! (to the cat)

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!  My next posts will be about the Wine and Dine half marathon from a couple weeks ago, and more on my new boyfriend, the Garmin 920xt.

Happy hip-anniversary to me!

Okay I know it's been a hundred years since I've written anything about training or race recaps, and I swear I'll make it up to you... but today I want to focus on something really cool:  Me.

Three years ago today I went in for my hip surgery.  At this time three years ago I was in the operating room, after shoveling snow off my car from a rogue snow storm that wreaked havoc upon the Halloween season.  It was a major surgery due to a torn labrum.  The injury itself had left me in constant pain for six months leading up to the surgery, and post-op I had many months of physical therapy and a very long road to recovery.

If you asked me at the time, I would have told you I thought my life was over.  Being on the sidelines, struggling to repair your body, watching everyone live their life and continue to improve while you're feeling left out...it's an awful, lonely feeling.  Especially for a "doer".  I'm a doer.  I like to do things.  I like to make things better and fix things.  The hardest medicine to take is rest and patience.  I remember when the doctor told me how long it would take to recover, I thought, sure, maybe for the average surgical patient.  Not an active runner like me.  I'll cut that in half.  I was wrong.  He was right.  Of course, all of his surgical patients were active runners so I guess his prognosis made perfect sense.  I was too panicky to see it that way back then.  I had a major case of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), and I didn't want to get left behind.

It's easy to get caught up in every day struggles, thinking this is the worst thing in the world and it will never get better.  The thing is, it does get better.  Sometimes it takes a really long arc to see the progress, and I remember being down on myself for a really long time, feeling like I lost a major part of my identity.

I'm a numbers gal.  I like data.  It helps tell a story and put solid facts behind what I'm saying.  So here's some data to help tell the story of my "life ending hip surgery":

In the last three years following my hip surgery, I have completed:

• 3 full marathons
• 10 half marathons
• A bunch of triathlons, including a half iron distance
• Hundreds of miles on my horse
• Thousands of miles on my bike

Ironically, this is the first "hip anniversary" that I can celebrate with a run.  On my first anniversary, I had just stress fractured my foot, forcing me to miss the Newport half marathon.  On my second anniversary, I had a torn ligament in my other foot.  In both cases I thought it was the end of the world.  Luckily I have a habit of being wrong about that.  On Sunday I completed a half marathon, and I completed another one the Sunday before that.

I'm here to tell you that if you are struggling with an injury, it will get better.  It is not the end of the world, even if it feels that way at the time.  You aren't missing out as much as you think you are.  Do the work, even if it means rest and patience because that's work too, and remember that it's just a little blip on an otherwise long, enjoyable, journey.

I'll be celebrating this journey and my anniversary with an easy run after work today, shaking the rest of the junk out of my legs from Sunday's race.

It's good to be back.

Crazy intervals & Death of a Garmin

It's been a relatively quiet couple weeks here at the ranch.  I went through a brief weird mental funk where I just didn't feel like doing much, but luckily it didn't last long.  I'm starting to shift my training a bit more towards running, and less on triathlon, since I have several road races coming up this fall.  However, I also have the Greenway Challenge coming up in September, where I will be doing a 19.5 mile road bike segment, so I need to get in plenty of quick miles on Lexi between now and then!

Here's the calendar for the next couple months:

August 16: Larry Olsen 10K
August 23: Cranberry Sprint Tri (should I do it?? I haven't signed up yet)
September 27: Greenway Challenge
October 19: Baystate Half Marathon
October 26: Newburyport Half Marathon
November 8: Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon

Yeah, sooo...three half marathons in four weeks? I'd say it's time to focus on running!  I think for a couple weeks I was starting to feel a bit stale, and just couldn't get excited about anything.  Then Kristen mentioned she wanted to do bike/run intervals, which was perfect timing since I had recently read something about bike/run intervals and Scott had just mentioned he was starting them too!  We set up the trainers in Kristen's driveway, and after a 15 minute warm up, alternated between 5 minutes on the bike (2 minute recovery, 3 minutes zone 5 effort), then an 800 yard run on the street at a 5K pace.  It was the most pain fun I've had in a while!  I think because it was different, it was with a friend, and we were constantly switching roles, it seemed like more of an adventure than a workout.

Photo cred to Luke, who distracted us from the pain while target shooting with his bow

The next day I went to track and realized I can't do speed work two days in a row.  A few days later, I tried the same workout, except alone, in my house.

This was not nearly as fun without a friend or inquisitive neighbors wondering what the hell we're doing riding our bikes in place in the driveway and sprinting up and down the streets like maniacs.  My transitions were super fast though!

Part of the reason I did this indoors is because my Garmin 610 committed suicide.  This Garmin has been a thorn in my side for about a year, so I can't say I shed a tear at its demise.  It was constantly reverse-charging (ie the battery would actually drain on the charger instead of charge!) and recently the side buttons were getting cranky.  Well, the side buttons finally stopped working altogether on Monday, which was very bad timing since I was trying to get out of my whiny funk and didn't need even one more reason to skip a workout.  Well... nothing improves a mood faster than buying yourself a fancy new gadget (well I guess maybe if someone buys it for you instead), so at just prior to 7pm I ordered the Garmin 910xt from Amazon, sprung for the $3.99 overnight shipping, and the Garmin was on my doorstep the next day at 5pm.  Amazon is magical!  Hilariously true side story: On Monday, just before learning of my Garmin's passing, (like seriously maybe an hour) I finally paid off the treadmill I bought in February.  It's like these gadgets talk to each other.  I spent last night pairing the watch with my foot pod, bike cadence sensor, and trainerroad, but apparently I forgot to pair it with my heart rate monitor.  I did a super early trainer ride this morning and so far I'm loving the new watch.  Can't wait to take it swimming!  (Wait, didn't I say I was going to focus on running??)

6 other things that happened in the last week:
1 - My favorite running club had a trail race in the woods behind my house last week.  In addition to running the course with Anthony the day before, Rocco and I went out Thursday afternoon to check signage.  Rocco approved and thought the runners would really love this sign:

And no, Rocco didn't leave a mess for the runners on the trails!

2 - In no-way-shape-or-form is this related to running, but I gave Andrew a much needed haircut.  My friends gave me a hard time about it, thinking maybe Andrew is a little too old to have his mother cut his hair.  I don't see a problem with it... I'm saving him money and it comes out looking spiffy!

3 - On Friday night Julia and I went to Gillette Stadium to see Ty Law get inducted to the Hall of Fame, and then the in-stadium practice.  The event was free, meaning free tickets and free parking.  What a treat!  I still spent $45.  ($2 for a hot dog and $43 in booze).  It was a great time and we had a lot of laughs thinking of ways we could incorporate some of the Patriots drills into our track workouts.  Like maybe the stretching in a circle around the field, the shedding random clothes wherever for someone else to pick up, and most importantly the air horn.  We also contemplated what our "walk out song" would be when we are inducted to the Tri Valley Front Runners hall of fame.  I think we can all agree Julia's will be Turn Down for What.  I'm sure mine will be something like Beer For My Horses, Bottoms Up, or Drunk on a Plane. 

4 - On Saturday I headed over to Marie's house to do her nails and lend her my wetsuit for a triathlon on Sunday.  We spent the day drinking seltzer water, and then she slithered into the wetsuit and tested it out in the pool!

We then went to dinner and watched Wolf of Wall Street, which was a nice quiet, wholesome movie for the whole family to enjoy.  (*No it's not).

5 - Sunday I woke up at 4am and drove with one eye half open to the start of the Blackstone Valley Triathlon.  I had no desire to race this but figured volunteering would be a nice way to participate and still get to see my friends.  They did great, naturally!

6 - Yesterday morning I went for a run before work, and since my Garmin was in its final resting place, I had to go without a watch.  I've been doing most of my runs in the trails (at least partially) lately, but I wanted a run that I knew precisely how long it was, so I figured I'd go up the street on my 4 mile loop (which I tend to avoid because it's so hilly).  About a mile in I realized I was having some - um - digestive issues.  Mile 2 I wanted to die.  Mile 2.5 I had to walk.  Unfortunately I chose this particular run to go through a development where there were no safe bushes to duck into.  I finally made it back to my street and did the shuffle of shame into the woods, watching the cars drive by and breathing a sigh of relief when they didn't look in my direction.  And here's a picture of it:

Just kidding... On the positive side, the last mile of my run was great!  That's one run I'm glad I didn't have my watch for!  After conferring with my mother and Andrew, we determined that we all were suffering from "bad scallops".  I was just the unfortunate one that decided to go for a run that morning.  I have new fondness for trail runs now, and all the privacy that comes along with them.  I also have a new appreciation for Rocco, who apparently has better trail etiquette than I do.  :-)

Iron Girl 2014 race report

Well I finally got my act together and signed up for another race.  After the Patriot Half, I briefly considered retiring on a high note, but naturally my friends wouldn't let me.  I had to take a couple weeks off of training due to a non-running-related surgery, so I struggled a bit getting going again.  Within just hours of Iron Girl registration closing online, I finally agreed to do it (with some aggressive suggesting by Coleen!).  Since Patriot, I had only swam twice and biked once on the road.  My running was doing okay but with some lingering issues from my surgery I wasn't running at 100%.  In the meantime, I somehow managed to get a flat tire even though I had it on the trainer.  I've gotten pretty good at changing tires, but getting the rear tire back onto the bike seems to be my hang up.

I was getting a bit nervous in the days leading up to the race because my quads were killing me.  I assume it was from Wednesday's track workout, but it was strange that it was lasting for so long.  Then I remembered I've been doing a lot of squats on my bosu ball, so I think it was a combination of both.  I ran 3.5 miles on Saturday to see if I could flush out my quads.  I normally wouldn't run that far the day before a race, but I'm glad I did because my legs felt a ton better afterwards.  Saturday night I figured I should probably just make sure my bike was working okay since I hadn't taken it on the road in a full four weeks.  I brought it outside and hopped on for a quick spin.  I didn't even wear my helmet because I was only going to ride it for about 20 seconds, but I was having so much fun I sprinted all the way up my hill.  Whoops!  While riding, I noticed my neighbors had porta-potties set up in their front yard.  Weird.

As I was getting tucked into bed, I texted Coleen and asked her to text me at 5am to make sure I was awake.  I've had a couple issues with my alarm lately and didn't want to oversleep!  We were carpooling together and I was supposed to be at her house at 5:15.  She's very punctual so I knew I could count on her.  Then... the music started.  It was weird music.  Heart thumping, shake-the-house loud music, and it was coming from my neighbor's house, but it sounded like it was inside my skull.  I had my windows closed and the fan on full blast, and couldn't escape the noise.  I was so angry, but I wasn't going to be a snitch and call the cops on my neighbors.  Unfortunately, the party lasted all night and I didn't get any sleep at all.  When my alarm went off at 4am, I was still trying to fall asleep!  I knew this was going to make for a rough race.  Finally at 4:30am I walked outside to move my truck and the music abruptly stopped, and I saw several police cruisers next door.  At 4:45am I texted Coleen and said, "no need to text me.  I'm awake and I've been up all night".  I finished getting ready and went to go pack my bike on my truck.  I lifted my bike off the ground and gave it a little bounce, and realized my rear tire was loose!  When I had changed the tube, I had trouble getting the tire back on securely but thought I finally got it on.  Turns out, I hadn't.  The skewer wasn't even locked down, and I very easily could've had a disaster.  I guess rolling up my hill last night without a helmet wasn't such a good idea!  So, I spent a couple minutes getting the wheel back on correctly, and ended up running late.  I texted Coleen at 5:15 saying I was running late and leaving my house now.  At 5:30 I pulled into Coleen's house and there was no sign of her!  I walked up to her house and she came bursting through the door, announcing her alarm never went off and she just woke up!  It was kind of hilarious.  Definitely not the best way to start a race, but all we could do was laugh.  We finally got to the race with just a few minutes to spare before the transition area closed.  Maybe that was a good thing, because I never had a chance to obsess over how to lay everything out.  My main priority was finding a porta-potty, so I quickly set up my transition area and made a beeline to the toilets!

It was a chilly morning, only in the low 60's.  The water was over 78 degrees so wetsuits weren't legal, which was fine with me because I wasn't using one.  It felt so warm in the water, which was such a nice change.  At Patriot the water was cold it took my breath away.  They split up our age groups into two swim starts to make the swim waves smaller, and there were 5 minutes in between each swim wave.  This was a great way to start the race.  Very relaxing and inviting for even the most timid swimmers (like me!)  Last year I had started in the far back and off to the side to stay away from everyone.  This year I was a little more confident so I started right in the middle and swam in traffic.  I swam next to and in between other swimmers and was very successful!  I didn't panic at all and had no trouble breathing.  I passed a few swimmers and a few passed me, and it was just a nice relaxing swim in clean water.  I know this doesn't sound like anything special, but I think I'm happier about this than anything.  Swimming has always been an issue for me, so I'm very proud of how far I've come!

Swim stats: .33 mile swim
Time: 13:51
Pace: 2:36/100m
Place in division: 48/82
Place overall: 302/583

I exited the water and jogged to the transition area.  For some reason my transitions are just always slow.  I should work on this, I guess.  It felt like it took me forever to get my feet wiped down and my socks and shoes on.  Finally 3:11 later I exited T1 with my bike and headed to the mount line.

My bike felt great.  I cruised out and felt like I was keeping a quick pace, passing people constantly.  No one passed me on the whole course, and I passed tons of people.  On the big hills where many people were walking their bike or zigzagging across the street trying to stay upright, I just kept pedaling.  I wasn't crushing the hill, but I was making steady progress and not killing my quads.  After the big hills I knew there was a long fast downhill and then some fun rollers, so I settled in and had a great ride.  I finished strong, hopped off my bike, and was happy to discover my quads didn't feel completely trashed like they had last year.  I remember last year thinking I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to run my bike back into transition, let alone run 3 miles!

Bike stats: 12 miles
Time: 41:40
Pace: 17.3 mph
Place in division: 5/82
Place overall: 29/583

Once I got back into the transition area, I was miffed to see that there was a bike in my spot.  I know it's a crowded area and it's not 100% scientific, but in this case, someone's bike was literally laying on top of my running shoes.  I had to waste time moving that bike out of my way so I could rack my bike.  Quickly changed my shoes, tossed my helmet, and took off running.  My legs were tired but not too bad, and I passed a lot of people on the run.  I got passed but not too often.  Just after the turnaround spot I saw Coleen coming up behind me.  I figured she was only about 30 seconds behind me so my new goal was to try to hold her off as long as possible.  She had started 5 minutes behind me so I knew she was technically "ahead" of me, but this was my motivation to speed up!  I held her off as long as possible, and then heard her call out to me about a quarter mile from the finish.  Crap!  I sped up a bit, but then she caught me in the last tenth of a mile.  It gave me motivation to try to stay with her and finish strong, so it worked out great.  I think that's the key, I need a 5 minute head start in all my races!!

Run stats: 3 miles
Time: 26:49
Pace: 8:57 min/mile
Place in division: 29/82
Place overall: 177/583

Finish time:
Time: 1:27:50
Place in division: 12/82
Place overall: 76/583

As usual, Iron Girl did an awesome job putting on this race.  I heard my name as I crossed the finish line (albeit a bit botched: Jill Doohommy).  The post-race breakfast was amazing, but I just wasn't interested in eating.  I took a Greek yogurt and a chocolate milk.  I got very chilly and we couldn't get into the transition area for another hour, so I was relieved when Joe loaned me his jacket!

After the race I started rethinking my bike split.  During the race I really felt like I was cruising and I was happy, but then when I saw my time I realized I wasn't as fast as I thought I was.  I became fixated on this, and had to go find out how I did last year.  I looked up my Iron Girl results from last year, and sure enough, I was 12 seconds slower this year.  This made me crazy, because after all my bike training this year, I definitely should've been faster!  I looked back at my Garmin stats from last year and compared them side by side.  Note: Garmin has this course measured at 12:29 miles, which is why my pace is so much faster on Garmin versus the official results.  And since for 2 years in a row Garmin has measured it identically, I think Garmin is correct!

It looks like mile 5, "the hill" is where I lost the most time.  I also lost some time in the first couple miles, but made up time towards the last few miles.  I probably shouldn't be as annoyed by this as I am, but what can I say.  I'm not an age-group winner, so I compete against myself and don't like to see myself get slower.  However, this year's run split was 4 minutes and 11 seconds faster than last year!  So I'm very happy with that.  Maybe sacrificing 12 seconds on the bike helped give me such a positive run.  Imagine what I could do with a full night's sleep!