10.12.24 - Boston 10K for Women 

This race was formerly known as the Bonnie Bell.  In 1980 I was 14 years old so my mother convinced me to run this race for the first time with her. Here we are! 

I hated that race. However the pain has duller over the past 40 years or so and ironically, this race has become one of my favorite races of all time. It has an upbeat feel and a flat fast course.  

 

Foxborough 5K

9/14/24 - Foxborough 5K Race Report

As per usual lately, today I almost did not race simply because the sig-up table was not prepared to take my cash! Gone are the days when cash was king! 

For boring documentry, I had a nice piece of salmon and rice pilaf for dinner. I had a bit of sugar free icecream and a cookie for desert. Got up at 5 AM and had my large mug of coffee, took a shower and drove over to the 5K race.  Got in a 1.2 mile warm up which was good for the legs but unfortunatley I still could not breath the first mile of the 5K so lungs were not warmed up yet. 

Soon we were done with the star spangled banner (which I love) and off we went like a heard of animals. After a few minutes I settled into pace I was given for that day.  I was thinking, well, if 7:30 is going to be my pace then I'll accept but damn, thought I would go under 7:30s today.

Mile 2 was a bit downhill so thankfully I was able to catch my breath and speed up a bit. Before the race I noticed a young woman who had a track T-shirt on while stretching. I was able to pass her.  I didn't think that was going to happen so I was pretty stoked.  

Mile 3 is just a hurt fest, trying to hold onto mile 2 pace, which I managed to do. I also managed to relax a bit and decided I could surge in the last quarter mile.

I ran the race perfectly; 1st mile at 7:32, 2nd mile at 7:16, mile 3 at 7:11 and the last .1 at 6:31!!!  Goal achieved.  Came at 22:40. Made my goal of breaking 23 min! 1st place 50-59,  4th female overall. Average pace was 7:18-7:20.  

Thank you God for this race!

Corrib Pub 5K Recap

It was an extremely hot Sunday afternoon of 81 degrees during the warmup and the race.

I arrived in West Roxbury a half hour before the start, registered, grabbed a drink of water, put my number on, and ran 1 mile warmup. Tried to get used to the high temps. After all I DID just spend 3 weeks in FL in hotter temps only two weeks ago.

I was fasted 16 hours fasted at the start. Thought about taking a Gu with caffeine but decided against it. Asked Jan Bober if she took a gell before this 5K and she said no. My decision was validated.

I had heard from several people including Mike Jordan, Maureen Larkin, and a woman named Jennifer with who I had struck up conversation with while waiting for all of the announcements under the hot sun, that this course had a few good hills. I was mentally ready, thanks to that info.

I had not raced since June 2023! I was stoked to be "back in the game" this day to see what I could do. I didn't know if I would do 8s, 7:45s 7"30s. NO IDEA.

I recognized a few runners from local running clubs. It's amazing how these people are still going strong after so many years! 

Finally we were off and running. I immediately found myslef maneuvering around several elementary boys. They were all very cute running along but I was needing to get past them. Eventually we all spread out and it was time to settle into a pace. I paced myslef as well as I could knowing the hills would be coming at miles 2 and 3. In hind sight the hills were substantial but not as steep as I had expected. 

My ending time was 23:56. I saw that I had to sprint at the end in order to go under 24 minutes. Probably my slowest 5k ever but nonetheless I was very pleased with my effort given the circumstances. I was 5th in my AG 50-59. This was a HUGE race with nearly 1500 runners.

I'm so glad I ran and very motivated to train hard for the Provincetown 5K in July. It will be hot but less hills. 

SUNKEN ISLAND OLYMPIC - 7/10/22 - E FREETOWN MA

 

I had not done a tri in over 3 years. And, I had been plagued with torn meniscus injuries for 2 of those years. I wanted to see if I could even still do a tri. I purchased the 80/20 plan because there was a lot of easy time spent in zones 1&2. I chose a competitive plan of course which meant 3 x swim, 3xbike,3xrun each week. I couldn't do it all so I only did 2 swims each week. I did 95% of the rest of the workouts. It went well. I was well trained for this race and I knew my swim would be sub par but I was willing to accept that. I was involved in a huge project at work and I had other stressors (mom, Kathy's diverticulitis, Kathy's work from Feb through May was extremely stressful.). During that time Kathy could not cook at all so it all fell to me while trying to fit in 9-11 hours of training. We got through it.

The day before the race I had laid around the house. I did not put on race wheels as I did not have time to bring the bike to Brian. I ate lots of carbs and for dinner I had rotisserie chicken, squash and mashed potatoes all prepared from Roache Brothers. I was constipated the next day and did not poop the entire day of the race. I will not eat that food the night before a race again.

Morning of race I ate a banana, a few pieces of bagel with almond butter, coffee, water, some fuel for fire and a GU 15 minutes before the start of the swim. It was plenty for me that day. Mary drove down with me and Jeff Weidenaar met us there.

The swim was wicked choppy. I was breathing fast and hard for the first 10 minutes then finally settled in. My swim was slowish on average 2:13/100. In transition my wetty got caught on my sensor. Transition was slow, over 3:30.

The bike was good. I kept my watts around 150-157 as much as I could. Garmin shows my AVE speed at 18.2/ watts avg 153. I think that's good for my first time back in a while. There was a long incline in the first 2 miles of the double loop. I passed one guy and one girl. Got passed once by a guy. This race was extremely small, under 50 participants in the Olympic. Bike went smooth. Transition was good.

When I first started the run I was under 7:30s. I slowed that down a bit so I could make it last. I eventually settled into 7:44. Then all hell broke loose. I hadn't seen anyone for miles and finally asked a young woman where Camp Cathedral was and I learned I had run off course by 5 fucking miles. I turned around and run 3 miles back then found a police officer for a ride the last 2 miles. I crossed the finish line with my run being on AVE 11:28s. lol... At any rate it still earned me 1st in my AG. Total time was 3:27:28 I think. I beat out 2nd place by only a min and a half. All that walk running on the way back paid off. lol.

It was a beautiful day and I was just happy I was able to get back safely. There were a few moments I felt a little vulnerable since I had not phone. Totally disappointed and devastated at first because I had trained hard since March but looking at the big picture how can I not just be glad that A) I ran an amazing 5 miles averaging 7:44s. My bike was great and the swim was as expected.

The Exciting Deets of Patriot

I ain't gonna lie.  I was going for the win in my age group. But that's ONLY because I felt like this could happen.  My training was solid and I had done well in my recent duathlon. Albeit the duathlon is a much shorter distance, nonetheless, my brain was in-it-to-win-it.  I felt the "eye of the tiger" and focus thing going on.  It felt really good to be in this place in training.

Mary picked me up at 4:45. I had already downed my fruit and plant based protein smoothie.   I had a new fuel pack of "e-gel and e-fuel".  Have you tried it?  It worked very well for me. NO STOMACH ISSUES and less sugar.

We got to the race in a calm, ready state.  We realized early on that our van was parked at least a quarter mile to the transition and registration area.  We decided we'd better go get "marked", register, then come back and get all of our thig-a-ma-jigs for transition.  After fiddling around at the car for miscellaneous task (Mary's break needed adjusting) we then realized we only had 30 minutes left to rack bikes, set up transition, put on wet suit, and get to the start.  No warm-up today! Drat!

On our way to transition we soon realized in a flash that neither of us had a chip but all of the other athletes (who had already racked their bikes)  had chips on the ankles.  Drat again!  Where were our chips? Oh - in the building next door to where we picked up our numbers.  Nobody told me that! Panic started to seep through my veins just a bit. I tried to remain calm knowing I still had several tasks that needed to be done.  In mere minutes we quickly racked our bikes transition, donned our wet-suits, picked up the chips,  watched organizers help Mary who had an issue with her wet suit zipper,  then finally we were off to the start.  I was a little rattled but managed to stay in control.

Standing at the start with my wave I was, once again, not really paying attention.  Rather odd that I had one of my best races ever but  yet could not bring myself to pay attention to the starting line.  I hadn't even put my googles on and all I heard was "GO".. then another "GO".. MEANING, YES YOU, GO..  and GOOGLES, GOOGLES.  I was the first person in my wave to go off.  I was that psyched to get going but forgot to put on my googles.

I had several mantras for the swim...  swim fast! No seriously.. I'm not used to swimming fast. It's a learned skill and takes a ton of practice.   Use your abs, don't pull to soon,  rotate, spot often, don't slow down, pull hard underwater.  These are the things my coach Ange and I worked on for the past few months. It worked. I popped out of the water in a time that was 2 minutes fast than last year.  Success!   I think I could have gone under 38 minutes had I not been stricken with a HUMONGOUS CRAMP only 50-75 yards from shore.  It took me at least 20-30 seconds longer to get to the shore. I had a huge bruise in that spot for the 3 days after the race.  Wierd!

Miraculously, as soon as I started to jog to T1 my cramp dissipated.   I tried to calm my breathing while moving steadily.   It went smoothly..  I didn't fall or anything.. but it wasn't fast.

On the bike - I gave myself 10 minutes or so to calm down from the swim and pump things back up. Everything was working and I had everything I needed. I settled in.  I kept my eyes on my average watts and hit my lap button 10 minutes in. Then, I hit it every 30 minutes.  My bike was broken down into 30 minute segments.  It had been raining hard all morning until race time which caused the roads to be wet while racing.  I saw one guy slide and go down in front of me and I felt bad.  I asked if he was OK but he didn't answer. He did however pop right up and look at this bleeding hand.  There was a fuel table about 50 yards ahead so I figured I needn't stop.

I carried all of my own fuel on the bike so I didn't have to drink Gatorade on the course.  This trade-off probably made my bike slightly heavier than necessary but I did not care.  Having my own fuel is really key to me because of stomach issues. At one point I was filling my torpedo bottle with my back bottle and BAM! I dropped a bottle which is penalty worthy.  I took a quick look back to see if any race sheriffs were around but alas. No one saw me. Phew.  I kept working the bike. Every time I saw my watts dip I focused on bringing it back up.  Unfortunately - in all of the rushing for the start - the one thing I didn't get to do was calibrate my watts.  In the end my watts were lower than last year but my speed was faster! I was 4 minutes faster on the bike this year with less watts!  Success!

T2 was an attempt to jog but was more like a shuffle.  My legs were pretty stiff.  By now I have an idea how this works.  If you keep moving even when you hurt, you will soon feel better! Looser! and well,  just plain better.  It's amazing really.

The run. Oh the run. How I love thee.  I gave myself 3 miles to find a pace I could work off of.  I settled at a 7:51 pace.  The 2nd 3 miles were right around that pace give or take a few seconds.  The 2nd half of this run is hillier than the first half so my pace did slow a bit but not a lot.  I knew that if I could keep my pace and the cadence I had going on, my run would be better than last year.  I managed to catch the women who were in front of me on the bike.  There were at least five I think.

In mile 13 of the run a young man that I had just passed was running just behind me.  There was about a half mile left in the race. He must have had a surge of adrenaline that he wanted to pass on. Suddenly I heard him yell to me "OK no one is behind you. You are going to take this in", like a drill sergeant.  I had just passed another woman in my age group so when he said this I bit right into it and said.. OK!  His pep talk helped me to go faster.  I finished strong and happy but also hurting.  As Ange would say "it's supposed to hurt"..

Starting out in triathlon for several years I would cried hard at every finish line of the half iron.  Like a baby.  It hurt so bad.  I did get choked up while on the podium but this feeling I had was a deep down feeling of accomplishment and pure joy.  I had worked really hard and I finally got my day.   It's as simple as that.

Patriot Half Iron Race Report

I'm hear to tell you that consistency and hard work pays off.  It might take FOREVER but it will happen!  

I'll start off with the end results since that is what I always look forward to. 

1st in my Age Group!

Swim 38:00  -  (1:49/100 yards)

Bike  2:51:22  - 19.6 MPH

Run   1:44:12  - 7:54 pace

Total : 5:20:10

And here are some pictures. I have a lot to do today so I can't write a race report but will do soon.

Patriot HalfIron 2016

Yes, this is the 2016 post that I just published today, 6/18./17. I found it and decided to post it because I am about to post for the same race 2017.

It is such a luxury to be able to train, race, and participate in triathlon.  It's a hugely demanding sport so you really need to have your sh--  together in order to pull it off with success.  I feel very blessed and thankful that I get to line up with a group of athletes.  The coolest part is to see women my age, 50 years plus all geeked up to crush a 5 plus hour race.  Go ladies! You inspire me.  These women are fast!

Moto for this race - "squeeze" - read:  "squeeze every ounce of speed out of your swim, ride, and run."   Repeat..  The main goal is to stay focused it really really helps to have something to keep my head in the race at all times. 

My swim was a two minutes faster than my in April.. 

Swim 41:24   - Texas was 43:34 

Swimming 2 times per week for the most part is what you get.  Not your best but not your worst.  The swim it'self was set off 2 people at a time which made for a GREAT swim.  No thrashing other swimmers to get off of you.. No head up to fix goggles after having them knocked off your face.. It was smooth.. All swims should go this way.. I think Ironman swims have starrted to use this staggered start time. 

Exiting the swim was quite the jaunt. You'll notice that T times were not super fast. Many of the 3 minutes or so.  

My bike was almost 3 minutes faster than Texas. 

Bike 2:54:43  - Texas was 2:57:10

I'm totally smitten with myself at how steady my bike split was.  The two loop course was gentle rolling hills.  First loop 1:27:00, 2nd loop 1:27:43.  This is what happens when you only look at your watts rather than speed.

I learned that I must ride outside during the week or else my bike split will be less than my best. 

I learned that I did all that I could with what I had in training.  With limited time you can still train for a halfiron and do pretty well. 

My run was 1 minute slower than Texas. 

Run 1:50:26  - Texas was 1:48:18.

Total time 5:32:54 (Texas was 5:34:??)..  two measly minutes faster. 

I'm not gonna lie.. I was not toooo happy about my time.  That said, I have to understand and accept that I just didn't do all of the training that it takes to go a lot faster.  I had to limit my training to 10 or so hours per week in order to have a semblance of balance in my life.  That's how it goes people. :)