The Rest of 2012...

The other day I sat down and finished up making all of the arrangements and paying all remaining entry fees for the rest of my season, and a bit into 2013.  It made me realize why this sport is full of people who earn lots and lots of money.  It's expensive!  If I hadn't been such a good saver once upon a time, I'd be in real trouble right now.  The fact of the matter is that I'll probably have to really cut back on any camps or excess travel next year, but for now, the worst of the damage has been done.  I felt like I wanted one really awful credit card payment so that next month I may feel like I'm under the illusion of actually making a bit of money.  But truthfully my account is about to have the least amount of money in it I think there has ever been.  I sure wish I had that Ironman CDA unused entry fee back from 2011.  And Timberman from 2011 AND 2010.  And other races maybe that I did but shouldn't have.

If anything, I should use this as incentive to really nail my training.  I've invested way too much money to waste it!  So what does this all entail?  Let's see....  August will be somewhat busy including my first return to race Timberman since 2008.  The last time I raced Timberman was the one time I actually cried on the run course.  I also managed to spend more time on the run course than the bike course.  Let's hope I do not have a repeat.  The week after that is QT2 camp in Vermont.  Again, I can't really afford this but at the same time I think I need the group training environment as much as possible right now.  I've always been a real loner when it comes to training, but to get back where I need to be the group thing seems to be doing me some good.

September will involve a trip to Phoenix for the first time in five years to do a training camp for Ironman Arizona.  This is necessary to obtain my sneaky entry.  Well, not that sneaky, it's pretty well advertized.  Technically I don't have to DO the camp to get the entry, but if the money is being paid, I'll be doing the camp.  I'll fly from there to Orange County for the staggeringly low price of $61 thanks to Southwest, where I'll spend the weekend doing a half ironman out there with Michelle and Jen.

I'll then fly home for a couple of weeks before boarding some very long flights to Kona.  Mary and I spent the weekend joking about how ridiculous it is that we're going to Kona.  She says it's like we're acting like high rollers and we are definitely not.  Seriously, when I bought my car last year they very nearly didn't give me a loan because of my income.  Fortunately my credit score is outstanding or I might have to ride the Cervelo everywhere.  That would've been a long ride to Texas.  We are definitely crazy for going, but it's still going to be lots of fun and I plan to make the most of it.  My biggest training weeks for Ironman Arizona just happen to coincide with my trip over there, so it will work out perfectly.  I also plan on doing some surfing.  I've been surfing a few times back here in NH, but it is certainly not the same!

So, once I return from 12 (wait, TWELVE?  Who do I think I am?) days in Hawaii, I'll basically be back for a few weeks of tapering and whining about training in the cold and dark before going back to Arizona for another Ironman.  The first thing I said to a good friend of mine at the finish line in '07 there was, "Don't EVER do this race," because I found it so unpleasant.  But, well, the timing is right and I know the course and know I can go fast there.  It is also the site of my first major disappointment in a race.  I had huge hopes for that one, and I completely blew my legs apart on the bike trying to fight the wind.  I 'fell apart' to a 3:47 marathon.  I really wish that was still my fall apart marathon time!  We're getting there :)

After that, I will be coming home to sleep for many days and have Thanksgiving before gearing up for 2013.  I'll be racing again in Galveston and at Ironman Texas.  I honestly thought I would hate that race, and nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, I obviously enjoyed both of those enough to go back.  But rest assured: I will be flying there!

Lake Placid 2012 Spectator Report

I have been terrible about updating, I know.  This is going to have to end soon.  But, to make up for it, here is an excessively long post about the details of my six days in Lake Placid.

I headed up on Wednesday, which just happened to be close to a hundred degrees, which meant another packing session spent with sweat just pouring off my face.  But once in the car the drive wasn't too bad.  I learned that my tiny little car can fit two bikes in it as though it was nothing.  And it's not like my bikes are small.  I swear that car is like some optical illusion, like the tents in that Harry Potter movie that look all unassuming from the outside, but then inside looks like a huge house. 

I made it in about four and a half hours even though I had bad timing on the ferry, seeing it just pulling away as I rolled up to the pay gate.  I was staying at Art Devlin's Olympic Motor Inn, which just happens to be an amazing location for race week.  My car was not moved upon my arrival.  The girls of room ten became the girls of room 26, right upstairs from our abode several weeks ago.  Mary arrived later that evening and as usual we spent too much time talking and went to bed way too late, but fortunately we didn't have a set time to start things in the morning. 

The morning was pleasantly cool, such a nice change of pace after days and days of hot and humid.  I actually felt like I could run when I set off for my long run in the morning, up around the lake and down toward the bike course.  All I could really think about was how nice it was to not feel like collapsing due to heat exhaustion.  After a quick shower I took a walk up to the expo to check things out and wound up replacing my aero helmet.  Mine was completely falling apart and literally unwearable at this point since it is cracked nearly in half.  I'm no safety expert, but I'm pretty sure that means it has lost its effectiveness. 

Mary and I set off to ride a loop of the course at around noon, her on her new QR which she loves.  The weather was simply gorgeous and at that point there weren't too many bikers out, so it was a really pleasant ride.  Not long after we finished we met up with Kim so we could all go for a little swim.  I am not sure there is another body of water I enjoy swimming in more than Mirror Lake.  Well, Mirror Lake as long as it is not on race day, that is.  We swam two loops and completed our first day of Placid training in time to get cleaned up and head to dinner at The Cottage with Kim and her husband Kyle. 

Mary and I were going to be the only ones in our hotel room again but we got a late call from Tara who was on her way up.  Apparently the house she was supposed to stay in had a guest who was severely allergic to dogs, which meant that Marley wasn't going to be a great addition.  This was unknown until just then and even the house owner had to keep his dog in the garage.  So she asked if she could come stay with us.  Well, why not?  So room ten was almost entirely reunited and we got our little mascot back.  And of course we stayed up too late talking.

We decided Friday would be long ride day, and had no interest in leaving at the crack of dawn.  So we set off about eight.  Mary had about a hundred meetings that day and had to bypass the ride, but Tara and I went off with Charlie and Jen Gray.  We all had various lengths to ride but we made it about 30 miles together, at least.  Tara had the smart idea of adding to the ride by going back and forth on the flat section rather than climbing back and forth into town, so we all did that as much as we needed to before climbing back into town.

Of course I was left alone after about 50 miles because I had to ride the longest.  The weather was absolutely perfect, and I had one fun experience of refilling my bottles with some lawn sprinklers.  I must say that that lawn sprinkler water was delicious and icy cold.  Once my ride was done I got in a little transition run and was glad to finally be able to sit down!  We took a little break and had planned to swim a little later on.  Tara headed down to the beach with Marley, I stayed in to lie down and Mary was off doing whatever Mary does when she's incredibly busy and being pulled in a million directions. 

I finally headed to the water at about five to find Mary and Tara who were both less than enthusiastic about getting in the water.  I have to say, at that moment I easily could've put my head down in the grass and fallen asleep right there amidst the chaos, but I also knew I'd feel better if I got in the water and swam.  Honesty, the hardest thing sometimes is just getting started.  So I convinced them to come with me. Trent arrived in time to join us as well and of course we were all glad that we had gotten in the water. 

After our swim, Mary, Tara and I headed out of town a bit to Tail o' the Pup with Tim Snow for a little coach's meeting.  Just a good way to all sit down and ask all of the questions that needed asking and get face to face answers.  It was very helpful and a fun way to spend the evening.  Well, for us, anyway.  Not sure how Tim felt about it! 

We made it home to the hotel where Trent and Marley were waiting, and believe it or not, that did not complete our group.  Nope, later that evening, Solveig arrived.  I promise though, that was it!  Yes, five people and a dog in one little hotel room.  Somehow the room actually seemed cleaner than when we were in room 10.  So clearly it was all Jennie's fault ;) 

Saturday morning was the QT2 breakfast and we decided we wanted to get a run in before, so we all set off for our various times and distances and got back in time to clean up before heading over for some food.  It's quite amazing to see how this has evolved over the past few years.  2009 was my first year with QT2 and at that point we had a few tables set up in the main dining room.  Then for two years we were in our own room that was attached to the regular buffet.  This year we had nearly a hundred people, our own room and our own personal buffet set up.  It was truly incredible. 

Those of us not racing got to enjoy an adequate breakfast that did not involve stuffing ourselves full of pancakes.  It was quite nice.  You always kind of wonder if you'll get to the race venue and be jealous of the people who are racing.  I really wasn't.  Maybe it's knowing I've got my own races coming up or the fact that I've done it seven times and don't feel like I'm missing much, but fortunately I don't think it's because I'd never want to.  It's just nice to be in town without the pressure and be able to walk around and enjoy things rather than resting and trying to do everything "right." 

After breakfast I took a chance to do some work and then chatted with one of my athletes who was racing so we could go over everything.  It's too bad that I can't be at every big race for my athletes because it really is nice to be able to be there for a face-to-face meeting for these things.  After that I had just enough time for a little bike ride before we went to go swim again. 

As we walked toward the water we kept running into people we knew.  It was funny, the first year I went there I knew I think three people aside from my own family.  Now I can't go anywhere without running into people I know.  And I'm not even the worst one.  I'm positive Mary knows more people and Tara probably does, too.  Either way, the consensus once we finally made it to the water was that from then on we had to tack on an extra thirty minutes to get from the hotel to the water even though the walk only takes five, because surely we'd be running into people and talking. 

Another wonderful swim and then we had to get cleaned up for our pre-race meal.  There were quite a few people out and about and we had to wait for a table at Dancing Bears but had ourselves a nice meal.  We even saw some athletes with race wrist bands having cheeseburgers.  Honestly, good for them.  I kind of like seeing the people who don't take it that seriously.  Sometimes we can put too much stock in eating the exact right thing.  I personally wouldn't be able to eat a burger the night before a race, but if it works for you, great.

After that we headed back to the Lake Placid Brewery for the non-racer pre-race festivities.  It was fun and once again I was not sad not to be racing.  But even not racing, a little after ten I started fading fast and it took me a while to get out of there because it was like as soon as I decided I was ready to leave I'd get into another conversation, but eventually we did manage to get out of there.  Somehow I had a harder time falling asleep than if I were racing, in spite of having been so tired.  We also heard some rain that night, but it was over quick.

Mary got up at 4 I think.  I don't know, I was still deliriously tired at that point and could barely figure out what was going on.  The rest of us finally left the room sometime after 6.  As we headed toward the lake, I still wasn't excited to be racing.  Tara is racing in New York City in a few weeks and I asked her if this made her any more excited about her own race and she said no.  I told her that I bet that as the day went along she'd be more and more excited about it.

Let's face it: nobody likes the beginning of an Ironman.  The absolute worst part of the day is like the last 15-20 minutes before the race starts.  You sit there thinking about all of the training you've done and all of the things that could happen, wondering if you're ready, wondering if you'll get what you wanted out of the day.  You wonder if your stomach will cooperate, if you're hydrated enough, if you need one more trip to the bathroom before you get in the water.  Then you get in the water and just wait.  Just start the stupid race, already!  The waiting sucks.  It gives you too much time to look at everyone else and wonder how much potential they have to kick you in the face or punch you in the back of the head once you start swimming.  The anticipation of the swim start is usually worse than reality.  But again, the bottom line is that you do not want to trade places with the racers at that point in the day.

We saw the pros go off, which is decidedly uneventful as there aren't that many of them and you simply watch Andy Potts launch like a torpedo, never to be seen again.  And eventually the cannon fired and off the racers went.  We watched a lot of people complete their first loop before making our way toward transition where we could see some people.  Positioning ourselves on the oval right where the racers ran toward their bikes turned out to be the perfect position to cheer people on and even ensure that they saw us.  It's an excellent place to cheer for people. 

After a long stretch of this we decided to head back to the hotel to quickly regroup and then head over to the infamous Papa Bear hill to continue the spectating.  It took us a long time to push our way through the treacherous and ill-planned crosswalk (everyone was just walking into each other and once you got to the other side nobody would move so you could actually get through) but eventually we got to the hotel.  Everyone headed out and I stayed behind for a bit to get some neglected work done.  I swear I've never felt like I had less time to myself to do my work than I did this week.  I hopped on my mountain bike to expedite the process and was too late to see the first few bikers come through but eventually they all started rolling up and we were able to see quite a few of our friends. 

This is where you start to miss the race a bit more.  I have a pretty good memory anyway, but I have to say that I vividly recall going up that hill, especially the second loop in 2006.  Simply an incredible feeling.  We stayed long enough to see all of our athletes before decided to move on.  Tara, Marley and I walked back toward the lake to get a swim in.  Trent and Mary headed back to the hotel and Solveig was doing some workout somewhere.  The trip to the lake involved some sketchy maneuvering behind bike special needs but we did survive. 

Once again we were not that excited to swim, but I have to say it made me feel so much better.  Spectating isn't easy. You spend so much time just standing around and your feet and lower legs start to swell up.  This is why that one little loop in the lake was so essential.  I'm not sure I would've made it through the rest of the day without it.  The beach was a zoo but there weren't too many people in the water which was quite nice. 

After that we went back to the hotel and then to the QT2 tent to cheer on some runners.  This is maybe a quarter-mile out of transition.  As a racer, it is quite intimidating to run by the QT2 tent.  I know we all race for ourselves and our friends are simply there to be supportive but there can be a lot of pressure when you know so many people are watching you!  It seemed quite hot out even just as a spectator so it would be an interesting run to watch.  QT2 racers all seemed to be doing quite well and it was exciting to watch.  Also a nice touch was that we were close enough to the hotel room that we could run back whenever we needed anything. 

The rest of the afternoon was a blur of racers and just watching the QT2 women move up to dominate the podium as they took top 3.  It was incredible to watch.  Jessie Donavan won, who turned pro less than a year ago and works full time, married with three kids.  Jennie Hansen came in second in her first Ironman, also having to spend her days working.  And third was Jacqui Gordon in her 20th Ironman which apparently she "trained through" so she can also race in New York City in a few weeks.  Pretty good day for us!  Our men and age groupers didn't do too badly, either. 

As we were spectating and more and more people had finished it was funny to realize that nobody in our little group was racing, so we had no set end time to the cheering.  It was like, when are we allowed to go get dinner?  Finally we decided to head down to Lisa G's to get something to eat.  We sat out back next to a waterfall and it was great.  It was also nice to just sit down!  It was room 26 plus Pat and Courtney Wheeler.  We had all just about had enough after a full day of spectating and cumulative lack of sleep.  But of course we did make one last trip to the finish line. 

I saw my athlete finish, and she did not have the day she wanted due to medical issues out of our control.  It's disappointing but those sorts of things happen.  Kim in her first Ironman as a pro suffered the same sort of fate.  It's unfortunate but happens to the best of us.  Finally we had had enough and called it a night. 

The following morning we decided to swim a bit early and just get it done.  After days and days of it being a zoo over there it was incredibly quiet when we got in the water, as was to be expected.  Tara and I swam two loops while everyone else got out after one.  Did I mention I love swimming in that lake? 

Upon our arrival back to the hotel we discovered that apparently we needed to check out in an hour.  I was the only one who was actually going to stay that night but of course everyone would've used the room to hold there stuff at least a little bit longer, but we had to scramble to get out of there.  Fortunately Tim and Cait put me up for the night in the house they'd rented.  I probably could've just left, but I had it in my head I wanted to do some workouts on Tuesday morning before I left and just couldn't bring myself to get out of there. 

I walked down to the awards but they did it differently and it was a very simple and quick thing rather than a whole banquet with food, so I actually missed the winner speeches which was disappointing.  But I did get to see and talk to some people.  That night I had dinner once again at Dancing Bears with Cait and Tim and their other friends from the house.  Pretty busy night out there. 

And that brings us to the final day, where I woke up too early and was torn between just falling back asleep because I was so exhausted or just getting up and running, which is what I decided to do.  I wanted one more run and it was so nice and quiet, almost eerie.  I quickly packed my stuff up and got in one more swim by myself.  It was so weird to be alone after so many days of swimming with my friends, but it was still nice.  Then I hopped in the car and headed for the ferry.

I realized that this was my ninth year in a row going to Lake Placid for that race.  It seems impossible to me that I'm old enough to be able to say that, but it's true.  I absolutely love that town.  It's where I did my first Ironman, got my first Kona qualification, and had the absolute race of my life.  Every time I go down Main Street I remember a bunch of different little things.  Dinners at Jimmy's for my carb load, my last-minute sunglasses purchase at EMS in 2006 because mine broke, my parents shopping in the Adirondack stores to help outfit their new lake house, pre-race swims, running out of T2 and taking the lead, running that out and back, the time I inexplicably tripped over my own two feet and hit the pavement a quarter-mile from the finish, seeing my friends out on the course.  Just so many different things.  I can't imagine not going back there, whether I ever race there again or not.  Either way, I think it was just what I needed for the motivational push to tackle the rest of the season. 

And now I've just finished booking plane tickets and signing up for races and getting hotel reservations and paying for the house in Kona.  I have no money left, but it had to be done.  It will be interesting to see what happens next for me.

Lake Placid Camp Report

It's been a while since I blogged and I really do have to get better about it, but often times there is just nothing exciting happening.  Not that any of it is all that exciting, but I'd rather have at least a little something to say.  Anyway, finally I do.  This past weekend we had the first of what should become an annual QT2 training camp up in Lake Placid, home of the awesome Ironman race.  From the first time I went up there in 2004 to race for the first time I absolutely loved it, and every time I go back I feel exactly the same.  Seriously, I could live there. 

Anyway, I went up on Wednesday, hitching a ride with my friend Trent who conveniently lives nearby and was also attending.  It was about 97 degrees while I was packing that morning and before that I barely completed a 35-minute easy run because I was so wiped out.  I took several breaks in the midst of packing from sweating so profusely.  The drive up was painless and uneventful and we had excellent timing on the ferry and arrived in town after four-and-a-half hours of travel.  Had a quick dinner and checked into the hotel. 

Tara was the first of my awesome roommates of the weekend to arrive, with her dog Marley who would serve as room 10 mascot.  He is not to be confused with my sister's Marley who we lost last September and who outweighed this Marley by a good seventy pounds.  We had some time to settle in before Mary and Jennie finally arrived at like 10:30, so we could finally go to sleep to prepare for the first day.

Thursday morning we woke up in time for some breakfast and to meet up with the other campers before heading down to the water for our first workout of camp: a one-loop time trial swim.  Not so luckily, the swim course is currently set up for rowing, which extended a "loop" about another 550 yards, or somewhere around there.  The water was fantastic and I wished I had brought one of my now-illegal skinsuits instead of my wetsuit since the wetsuit is starting to show its age and I didn't really need it to keep warm, and all of that on/off is not going to help it from a longevity standpoint. 

Anyway, we all lined up in the water ready to take off in a mass start of about 29 of us and then it was time for some good, hard swimming.  Coming off Ironman Texas last month I am not exactly in prime shape, and as usual, going as hard as I possibly can isn't really my specialty, so it was certainly a challenge, though a good one.  I stayed on someone's feet, finding out at the turn that it was Trent, which I decided were good feet because we've raced together a lot and I am pretty sure he has always beat me out of the water, so I pretty much followed him the rest of the way.  Thanks, Trent!  I finished three seconds behind him, about seventh I think among all of the swimmers in our group.  Also, toward the end I did, in fact, feel like I might throw up, so I decided I definitely paced it correctly. 

After that we all headed back to change into bike gear for another hard ride, a time trial on the old out and back.  We rode back down the back side of the bike course, which I'd never done before.  Certainly it is downhill but nothing like the infamous descent on the course itself.  Also, the road was in pretty terrible condition for this stretch, so we had to be careful.  It was incredibly warm out during this ride, so I was not upset to find out that the time trial was only 4.1 miles and not entirely uphill.

We lined up in the order we'd finished the swim and took off in intervals based on where we finished the swim.  So if you finished ten seconds behind the person in front of you, you took off ten seconds after they did.  That was kind of fun.  It started off pretty painlessly with some downhill and then flattened out before moving up.  Did I mention I'm not good at all-out efforts?  I reached a point of maximum oxygen deprivation and just felt like I was almost hyperventilating and couldn't go any harder toward the end, so that was not my best performance, but still fun in that weird sort of way that we all find training like this "fun."  Then all we had to do was ride back and then hit the roads for some running.

I was feeling pretty beat up and given the heat I didn't think I'd get much out of an actual run, so instead I ran to the lake and then hopped in the water with Mary and Charlie to do some water running.  Charlie is forced to water run due to injury and Mary and I were simply there for moral support.  If you've ever been forced to water run it is possibly the most boring activity on the face of the planet.  But water running with a couple of friends in Mirror Lake on a beautiful day isn't such a bad thing. 

We had a tiny bit of time to get ourselves together before our pizza dinner that night to load up for our big ride the next day.  There was a sports nutrition talk that night but a few of us headed back early to get some work done and get in bed early since we are pretty well versed on the Core Diet.  I'm pretty sure I slept well that night, having gotten used to sharing the bed with Marley curled up near my legs. 

Friday morning we were up, well, as late as we could get up while still making it in time to grab something to eat before our easy one-loop swim in the lake.  It was much more pleasant without the feeling like I was going to throw up thing going on.  Then it was time to hop on the bikes to ride the course.  I opted to ride with the middle of three groups given that my super-speediness on the bike in Texas had all but completely vanished, so I knew I was not going to be keeping up with the big guns.  The loop was even slower than I expected and I had to skip a bit the second time around in order to not wind up riding way longer than planned.  Given that I pulled into the hotel parking lot after exactly six hours of riding, I'd say I did a pretty good job. 

I had ridden with people off and on, stopping often to fuel up thanks to Courtney and her wonderful QT2 van with Marley riding shotgun.  The weather was mostly nice, although the second time down the descent it was raining which is sort of painful when you're moving 45mph, but it didn't last too long and the sun came out again later.  The day was topped off with a little run and finally I was able to relax... for a very brief period of time before we had to head to dinner.

I guess I should mention that Friday also happened to be my birthday.  Now, I don't make a big deal about my birthday.  I think in the past ten years I've had a birthday cake twice, maybe.  A couple of times I may have literally not seen anybody.  Or sometimes I'll meet friends to swim or something and they have no clue, which is fine.  Four years ago I did the exact same thing on my birthday, riding the course in Placid when I was up training with friends.  The thing is, somehow people always find out.  That time it was because my cousin called me to say happy birthday while we were eating lunch and someone heard just enough to be able to figure it out.  This time, while my birthday isn't listed on facebook, all it takes is one person to say it and for that person to be friends with a lot of the people who happen to be up at camp with you and the word spreads. 

Mostly I wasn't even thinking about it being my birthday.  I forgot about it myself most of the time.  It was only the second birthday I've had without my dad, and if I skim the calls my cell phone has received I can still see the time he called me on my birthday in 2010.  I thought of him a lot when I was up there.  He watched me race all seven times and might have loved the town even more than I did.  The last time he was there he and my mom were talking about maybe coming up for a winter getaway.  It's just too bad they didn't get to do it.

Anyway, upon finishing the run, Courtney was the first one to mention the birthday since she had spent much of the day on social media since she didn't have much to do aside from wait for a lot of tired and thirsty athletes to refuel before moving up the road another twenty miles or so.  And then as we were walking to dinner Trent, thanks to having seen my mom and a few other people post on my facebook wall, told my roommates as we walked down to dinner.  So, the secret was out.  Oh, well.  I'm just not the kind of person who wakes up on my birthday and walks around screaming it to the world.

Dinner was up the road at the Dancing Bears, a restaurant at the High Peaks resort.  Fajitas never tasted so good.  Afterward I was surprised with a birthday, um, bowl of fruit with a candle embedded in the strawberry.  Yes, it's QT2.  To be honest, having been so stuffed with fajitas I'm not sure I would've been able to handle cake at the time, anyway.  I'm also pretty sure that's the first time I've been sung happy birthday since I turned 18.

So then it was time to head back for the general Q&A with the coaches before going back and getting into bed.  I think it was difficult to even hold my head up at that point.  Oh, but I did get to use our awesome Norma-Tech recovery boots and those felt great.  I'd just need a bigger pair for my freakishly long legs.  Fortunately, Saturday was a much lower key day.  In fact, workouts didn't even start until 9:30.  Our standard morning routine was for Mary to get up way before any of us and Marley to bark a bit at her and get all riled up before leaving his spot between me and Tara on the bed to go lie on Mary's pillow next to Jennie.  The rest of us would stay in bed until the last possible moment.  I am sure I was up pretty late.

First up Saturday was two loops in Mirror Lake.  Again, these were long loops so it was more like 5600 yards than 2.4 miles.  But I could practically swim all day in that lake, so I had no issues with it and the hour and twenty six minutes didn't feel like it was that long.  I did feel exceedingly hungry afterward, though.  We had a bit of a break after that where we got some lunch and got to wonder when it was going to rain, because it was definitely going to rain.  I had a little bike fitting with Jesse and we moved my saddle forward just a tad, but that was it.  There wasn't much reason to change anything else.  That's always a good thing.  

It was pouring rain and thundering at that point, at which time we were supposed to be doing our ride.  I also had two athletes racing the next day who I had to get in touch with so I had to make sure I was available until we finally connected, so that made the afternoon a bit sketchy.  I'll be honest and say that I didn't ride.  In the grand scheme of things, me missing one recovery bike ride, my strongest sport, five months out from my next A race is probably not a huge deal.  So I chose not to worry about it.  I got my work done, kept Marley company, had my phone calls, and then went out for the run, which is always the thing I need to spend more time on.  Running around Mirror Lake is pretty pleasant.

It's funny though because many times throughout the weekend I also thought of racing there in 2006.  There are definitely a lot of vivid memories in my head from that day.  The marathon on the out and back, coming to the top of Papa Bear with all of the spectators, seeing my dad when I got off the bike in T2, running out of transition and taking the lead.  I really need to figure out how to get somewhere near that again!  Not necessarily winning races, just maybe actually having a reliable run again. 

Anyway, after that it was once again time to get cleaned up and I got a great deal on a new swimsuit before it was time for my pre-dinner massage.  Courtney made me want to cry, but she just casually talks to you while inflicting the pain as you try and pretend you're fine.  It was probably a good thing, though.  Dinner was some delicious chicken, veggies, salad, sweet potatoes and some other random stuff.  And that night was our mental fitness talk.  I really, really almost fell asleep during that.  Not because it's a bad talk, but simply because I was exhausted!  That night we didn't talk much before going to sleep while Tara stayed up working a ton. 

Then it was time for the last day.  No swim, but easy bike and long run.  It was a chilly morning and I opted to run first.  I did that because I felt as though I'd be better off surviving the run first rather than trying to get through it as the last thing of the whole weekend.  That, and frankly it is not really enjoyable to me to run on the same course at the same time as a whole bunch of people running way, way faster than I am.  This leaves me with approximately zero running partners but maybe sometime in the future I'll be able to run with some people again. 

But, it was a beautiful, cool, sunny morning in Lake Placid and I could run around the lake a few times without too many people in town, although the lake was crowded with tons of swimmers.  There were definitely a lot of camps in town.  I finished up in time to pack up my stuff and move out of the room since we had to be out by 11:00 thanks to a horse show. 

Once packed and ready I hit the road for my easy ride which was quite nice, especially since I could just ride with some of our runners and chat with everyone.  Before we knew it, camp was over and we had some time for lunch before hitting the road.  But not before one last little stop at Starbucks with my roommates and Trent who designated himself as an honorary member of room 10 and we parted ways about 3:30.  We made it to the ferry with good timing and it was as crowded as I've ever seen it.  I actually was worried we wouldn't get on, but thankfully we did.  Then just the rest of the super boring ride down 89 and I was home at 8:15.  Not too bad. 

Somehow I had a hard time sleeping last night, but I did manage to get up this morning to meet some people to swim at Glen Lake.  It is definitely not Mirror Lake but at least it was warm and I didn't need my wetsuit and the bacteria levels warning had been lifted.  It was a good day for some rest because not long after the swim it started raining and pretty much didn't stop the rest of the day. 

So it was an awesome time with some great friends and a good way to kick off the real training for the second half of my 2012 season.  I am officially confirmed for Ironman Arizona in November.  I recall hating that race, but I do know I can race well there and I know the course and the timing is right, so, there aren't a lot of good reasons not to do it.  I'm sure I'll be okay with the fact that the bike course is the most boring on the Ironman circuit as long as I remind myself how fast it is and that the last time I raced there I won my age group by an hour.  Not a bad precedent. 

Okay, almost time for bed because it's another big training week ahead!

Mooseman Spectator Report and What Happens Next

This past weekend was what I often feel is the official kick-off to summer triathlon season in New Hampshire: Mooseman.  After the original Mooseman in 2004 this race moved to Wellington State Park in Bristol where it has been held every year since 2005.  I raced the half in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and last year and the Olympic distance in 2010 since it was a tad too soon after Ironman St. George.  The point is, this was my first time not racing.  Not once during the weekend did I wish I was. 

No, that is not because I don't like racing and don't want to do another triathlon.  That is definitely not the case.  Two weeks after Ironman Texas I certainly was not in racing mode yet again and the weather was... less than desirable.  The weather in New Hampshire in June is sometimes quite pleasant.  But there is something about this race that attracts either incredible heat and humidity or torrential rain and cold.  It's very rarely anything in between.  2005 was blazing hot, 2006 was really cold, 2008 I think the pavement was on fire, in 2010 you would've been better off keeping your wetsuit on the entire race. 

So this year as race weekend approached, while the weather was absolutely gorgeous in the days leading up, just in time for registration the rains moved in along with awesomely cold temperatures.  Nothing like having to wear a heavy jacket in June.  I wisely opted to skip spectating on Saturday at the Olympic.  It rained all day long.  My friend Trent came up to stay at the Zahr lake house and we went over to the QT2 dinner in Bristol with an exceptional amount of athletes.  The team has expanded so much I feel as though there are more people I don't know than do know at this point.  Being a non-racer I was just about the only one without a plate of pasta and chicken in front of me. 

The other nice part about not racing?  I didn't set an alarm that night.  I knew I was going to watch but under the circumstances I figured there was no reason for me to be there to sit in the rain and watch people come out of the water.  I woke up a little after 6 and fortunately Trent was already long gone so no worries about him missing his start or anything.  The good news was that it actually wasn't raining.  The even better news was that a quick look at the weather radar showed that it really wasn't going to be all that rainy that day.  The temperatures weren't going to get out of the 50s, but cold and dry is a hundred times better than cold and wet.  So I took my time getting ready and then hit the road. 

Given that I had some extra time I stopped off for some breakfast at a little local diner I've always loved and had a really good veggie omelet and arrived at the race site about 8:15.  There was some drizzle as I pedaled my bike in from my really-far-away parked car, but other than that, it was basically fine.  Oddly, it took me a very long time to run into anyone I knew.  I watched some people heading out on the bike before heading over to see some of the slower swimmers come out of the water.  Given that there was nothing else to watch really at that point, I opted to stay and watch the final swimmers come out.  It's sort of amazing to see the circuitous routes some of these people take.  Not that I haven't been one of them in the past.  It's also pretty cool to see how immensely thrilled some of these people are just to get through the swim.  Two guys came in together (note that every single one of those slower swimmers I saw were men!) and just made the cutoff and a couple of minutes later one last soul came in and unfortunately had to be told that his day was over.  But the guy would take like ten swim strokes and then stop and "rest" by treading water in place for like ten seconds before continuing forward.  If that was his entire swim strategy then he might want to consider at least doggie paddling in a general forward direction while he "rests" so he's at least continually making progress.

Anyway, after that I just kind of wandered around some, looked at the expo and stuff, because the bikers wouldn't be back for a while.  And even after the first biker came back it was like ten more minutes before the second one came in.  That bike course is so challenging that everyone is really pretty spread out, but slowly people started to come in, including plenty of QT2 jerseys right up front.  I don't think I saw anything particularly exciting.  I will say that transition was basically a swamp, so that was kind of amusing.  And actually watching people come out of T1 quite a few of them would walk out and put their shoes on after they were out of transition and there was even a person with a hose standing there to spray people's feet off.  Yes, things were messy.  But again, at least it wasn't raining!

I think at some point there in spite of the lack of rain it actually got colder outside.  Great running weather, though not so great for biking.  Eventually I went over toward the finish line to watch people come through which is always fun.  Lots of very solid performances there including by two athletes I coach, which is always nice to see.  Especially since this was the first race I'd coached them through.  Trent had a good race in spite of having been stopped on the bike course for a bit due to an ambulance and a bike accident.  I hope nothing too terrible happened there.  Then it was just watching more and more friends come through. 

Sometimes I can't believe how long I've been racing and I remember my first few years not knowing anyone when I'd go to a race.  I think I'd have to go race in Switzerland or something at this point if I didn't want to run into anybody.  It's always fun though to run into people at races.  And eventually it was time to get out of there.  That is of course another perk to not racing and certainly not getting awards, you can leave whenever you want!

Last year this race was basically the end of my season.  I had had a disappointing race in Oceanside, a really bad race in Florida including a foot that kept hurting and I didn't know why, and then I went out at Mooseman knowing things weren't going to go well.  It was the second race I'd ever had to drop out of, although the first one I knew going in I'd have to stop before the run because I already knew I had a stress fracture.  After a terrible bike ride I ran three miles and finally said to myself, something is definitely wrong with that foot.  So I stopped.  And an x-ray some days later told me that I was not imagining things and I was sentenced to the boot for the entire summer.  So, anyway, let's just say I'm in a better spot this year. 

All right, so, what's next for me?  For the first time ever, I didn't have a whole line-up of races planned out.  After IMTX I had no plans.  Zip.  Zero.  Honestly, a couple of months ago I was wondering if I'd even wind up racing at all again afterward.  My USAT membership needed renewing in March and I usually renew it for two years just to delay the hassle a bit, but I opted for one because, well, I wasn't sure if I was going to need it beyond that.  Who knew what was going to happen? 

The best possible outcome was another trip to Kona.  That obviously didn't happen, and that's ok.  I finally had to start thinking though about what I might want to do next.  Right away I went into overdrive thinking up a few crazy ideas.  Mooseman had 25 slots to Lake Placid.  Maybe I could get through that and get a Placid slot and qualify for Kona and race there again.  I knew that entire plan was ridiculous, but it was hard not to at least consider it briefly.  Jesse would certainly never let me do that. 

Another thing I discovered was that Ironman Louisville was still open.  In the past I felt as though you'd have to pay me to do that race, run in that weather and, most importantly, swim in that disgusting water.  But suddenly it all sounded like a great idea.  Three months.  I can be ready in three months, right?  Well, Jesse didn't like that idea either, really.  And the more I thought about it, the worse it seemed.  I mean, not only is it turning around and doing another Ironman pretty quickly, but if the whole point was simply to get to Kona again, I'd then have to turn around and do yet another Ironman six weeks later.  Yes, maybe that's not the best idea. 

So, I'm trying something new.  Being patient.  I'm not going to lie and say it's really easy.  A big part of me is still sitting here thinking, but if you just get your act together you can do it now.  Okay, that may be true, but at what cost?  Where is that going to leave me for 2013 and beyond?  Admittedly we all have a finite amount of time to be elite athletes.  I can't pretend that there will always be enough time because unfortunately, that's not actually true.  But at my age another year is not going to make or break me.  Craig Alexander and I share the same birthday... except he's six years older than I am and he seems to still be doing pretty well. 

So instead of scrambling to try and barely make it through the season and maybe or maybe not make it to race Kona for 2012, I will be ending my season with an Ironman, it just won't be in Hawaii.  Where has not been 100% finalized, but it will be at a point in time in which I can perform to my own standards.  Those standards are pretty high, but given another five months or so it will be amazing what I can do.  I'm sure in October I'm going to feel a little sad that I am once again not racing on the Big Island.  It was 2009 when I last toed the start line and 2007 the last time I finished the thing, so you can see why it might be tough for me to be patient.  But being patient now will pay off a whole lot more in the long run. 

Given the late season plans there is a lot of room for some racing over the summer and I am quite happy to say that it appears that every race I do between now and October will be in my home state and involve me waking up in my own bed.  Not bad.  Next up is Black Fly in Waterville Valley, an international distance and a race that I've always wanted to do but it never quite fit the schedule.  After that most likely I'll be doing a small, independent half ironman at the end of July in Enfield.  How small?  Well, last year there were 49 people who raced.  But hey, maybe I can finally get my elusive half ironman win.  I've won a sprint, Olympic and an ironman but haven't quite nailed one of these, yet.  If things go well and only about nine women show up maybe I can finally hit for the cycle.  After that I get to finally race Timberman again.  Yay!  I raced it eight years in a row and it was my first half TEN years ago, so it will be nice to go back after my little hiatus for 2009, 2010 and 2011.  Then there is yet another small, new half ironman over by Sunapee in Semptember.  I don't know how or why so many of these races have sprouted up in my tiny state, but I'm not complaining and am taking advantage. 

So, a busy but fun schedule I'm certainly looking forward to.  Entry fees on some of these smaller races are certainly kinder and gentler.  As is the lack of flying.  It is really nice to be excited about racing again instead of sitting around worrying just how bad the next personal worst is going to be.  Very pleasant change of pace.

Texas to New Hampshire Drive Report

What could be more fun immediately following an Ironman than hopping in the car and driving almost 1900 miles?  Oh, that's right, just about anything.  But, well, unfortunately I had to get my car and my stuff home somehow.  Immediately after the race I had some really awesome finish line catchers who helped me over to the food area and even got me a chicken burrito and made sure I was all right.  It was very strange to finish and not know anyone anywhere nearby, but fortunately Michelle finished a couple of minutes after me so I wasn't alone for long. 

We eventually got cleaned up after lots of walking back and forth to get the bikes and bags and find the cars and jump start their car because the lights were left on and by about 8:30 or 9:00 we were back in town to try and find a celebratory meal.  Annoyingly, after an Ironman even though you'd think you'd be starving and you've been dreaming about that post-race meal for months, usually your stomach isn't really able to handle much.  After some wandering around, Michelle, Jen and I found ourselves at a nice outdoor table at Tommy Bahamas where I had half a grilled chicken sandwich and a few fries before calling it quits.  Not even a thought about dessert. 

I got back to my room a bit before midnight and didn't bother trying to go to sleep until 1:00 because I knew it would be a futile exercise.  I may or may not have fallen asleep somewhere in there, I really don't know.  I do know that when I rolled over and looked at the clock it was 5:30 and I decided to start packing up my stuff.  I definitely felt sore, but it wasn't quite the crippling post-Ironman soreness I've often experienced.  Probably because of all of those walk breaks and not running that fast.  The blisters were horrendous, however. 

I met Michelle and Jen for breakfast at their hotel where I still wasn't really feeling like eating much, which was a bit disappointing, but oh, well.  I then finally packed everything up and went to the roll down where almost no slots rolled down and certainly not close enough to my sixth in my age group and then headed over to the awards to hang out with some of my award winning teammates.  But before that all ended I decided I should hit the road and begin my long, long, long drive back home.  I wanted to get as many hours as I could stand in that first day so I wouldn't have as much left to go later. 

That first five hours in the car weren't too terrible.  I made it out of Texas and through almost all of Louisiana.  I never, ever want to drive through Louisiana again.  I drove through it last year, then to and from Galveston and then to and from The Woodlands and there is just something about that stretch through that state that is so much worse than anywhere else.  Somehow, I wasn't able to really sleep that night, either.  I expected that somewhere in the middle of my day of driving I'd be ready to fall asleep but somehow that never happened. 

I hit the road at 6am and for some reason I had decided in my head based on almost nothing at all that I was not going to stop until I made it to Pennsylvania.  I had found online a town not that far over the border that had plenty of hotels and that became my goal.  A mere 1075 miles away from where I had stayed in Louisiana.  What was I thinking?  Oh, that's right, I was thinking that it would leave a lot less for the last day, which wound up being a good thing but made that day incredibly painful. 

Mississippi passed quickly since just about nobody drives through it.  Alabama had some slower spots but once I got north of Birmingham it was like being in the middle of nowhere.  At one point for twenty miles the interstate was narrowed to one lane going both ways and traffic was not slowed at all.  I made it to Georgia and my own time zone for the first time in a very long time and fortunately was in and out of there quick since the road conditions were awful.  That must be why there was no sign welcoming me to Georgia, because they didn't want anyone to know how poorly they took care of their roads.

Then I was in Tennessee for the first time in my life.  Not that I got to see much of it.  Although they do love to point out constantly how many highway fatalities there have been this year.  Somewhere around Knoxville was where some on and off rain started.  And eventually I made it to Virginia.  Now, although in order to get to Pennsylvania I still would have to pass through both West Virginia and Maryland, those states were so short that the majority of my drive was in Virginia, which I thought was never going to end.  Somewhere down there was where I saw the cheapest gas of the trip, $3.17 a gallon as compared to the most expensive, I believe $4.26 off the Merritt Parkway. 

I wasn't really indulging on too much road food, either, simply because I wasn't that hungry.  Okay, so most of the drive that day was fueled by little powdered doughnuts, but my big "splurge" meal was a BBQ chicken sub from Subway.  I don't even like Subway very much but that was what they had there, so that was what I'd be eating.  I actually didn't even have dinner on the road because by the time I'd make it to my hotels simply lying down was way more important to me than food.  Torrential rain started hitting through the state, off and on and off and on and causing traffic to slow way down.  Like I needed that.  You could see it coming from far away, too, the menacingly dark clouds off in the distance and the occasional lightning.  I kept thinking I'd gotten through it only to be slammed with more rain and slowed down once again, wondering if I'd ever make it out of that stupid state. 

I guess the only up side was that I saw a double rainbow all the way across the sky.  And I was reminded of driving that same stretch of highway with some friends after my freshman year in college when we took a road trip to Miami and we played the cow game.  That means each side of the car is a team, and you count the cows on your side and keep adding them up and if you pass a church your cow total doubles, but if you pass a cemetery all of your cows die and you have to start over.  There were definitely a lot of cows on that stretch, and if memory serves, my team made it to over 300,000 cows before we lost them all. 

Anyway, finally I survived all the way to West Virginia, which I wasn't in for too long before spending even less time in Maryland.  And fourteen hours and forty-five minutes after I'd left that morning and having lost an hour thanks to crossing time zones, I pulled up to the hotel in Chambersburg, PA.  My whole body was shaking, and you can imagine my legs weren't feeling too great after that whole Ironman thing and having spent all day sitting up in the car.  I actually managed to prop my non-driving foot up on the dashboard, but even in spite of that and the compression socks my feet were unbelievably swollen. 

I slept fairly well that night but was up way too early thanks to the fact that the person who had been in my room last set the alarm clock for 5am and left it on and I'd forgotten to make sure that nothing was going to wake me up.  At least breakfast started at 6 and I had a real meal before getting on the road. 

450 miles to go.  It rained some more, although at least it wasn't too cold.  The traffic was more annoying and I missed the 75mph speed limits of the south but at least I was making progress.  And at least I didn't have to get out of the car in New Jersey.  Over the Tapan Zee Bridge and onto all of those annoying highways to get around New York City.  There was an incredible back-up at one point thanks to pretty much absolutely nothing.  Yes, one car pulled off the side of the road doing nothing, but just in case let's all come to a complete stop before we move on so that traffic can be backed up for a mile. 

Then my GPS took me to the Merritt Parkway because for some reason it loves that road, even though I do not.  Oddly, it doesn't love it when I'm driving south.  In the rain it's even more fun to drive on, as well as when you're really hungry and you know that you're not going to be passing anything resembling real food for miles.  But just like the rest of the trip, I got through it and then was on to interstates I knew and trusted and I also knew I was almost home.  That day was the day I thought I was going to fall asleep at the wheel.  So much so that even when I didn't need any more gas with ninety minutes to go I stopped in Massachusetts to get out of the car and actually sit down and have something to eat in an effort to wake myself up just as much as finally eat some real food. 

Luckily, that worked and got me through the rest and seven hours from when I'd left, I was home!  Walking still wasn't fun, but at least I survived.  I have to say, I don't think I'm going to be planning any more trips that require me driving hundreds and hundreds of miles by myself.  The novelty has certainly worn off.  So New Hampshire might have to get used to having me around a lot.  And, fortunately, sleep has been made up for.  And my bed is just as nice as I remember. 

So, what's next?  Well, hopefully decisions will be made over the next couple of days, but it should be fun, whatever it is.

Ironman Texas Race Report

It has been a long time since I had an Ironman race that I felt sincerely satisfied with.  In fact, when I think about it, it's been just shy of three years.  Honestly it seems crazy that I've even been doing these for three years, even though I did my first in 2004, a staggering eight years ago.  Anyway, the point is, it's been a long time coming and it makes me even more excited for whatever happens next.  But let's get down to it...

I actually slept pretty well the night before the race.  I was on my hotel bed with my feet up from about noon until I got up the next morning, so that helped.  I turned out the lights at 8:30 and fell asleep pretty quick since I was so tired.  I remember waking up at about two or so and rolling back over only to be awakened by my alarm clock at 3:30 for breakfast.  Blech.  I downed the applesauce pretty quick, intermittently sprinkling my protein powder in there to get that down as well.  After quickly eating the banana and chugging my bottle of Powerbar Perform I snuggled back down into my bed after resetting my alarm for 4:30.

I definitely did not fall back asleep before the beeping went off again.  I immediately turned the alarm off - as a side note, always make sure to turn those alarms off on race morning once you've used them because you do not want them going off the morning after the race!  I got up and used the bathroom and just kind of milled around a bit before putting on my awesome Pearl Izumi race kit - seriously, the thing is magical and I had zero chafing! - added sunscreen and some Body Glide to the important places and then headed down to the car to drive the four miles to the race site.

The race guide did a staggeringly bad job of telling us where things were.  I mean, there were vague mentions of locations, such as: "Waterway parking lot."  How exactly we were supposed to know where that was located was anyone's guess.  It might have been nice to have, say, an address or at least a cross street in there.  Same goes for transition and the mention of race morning parking just said something about garages off of Lake Robbins Drive.  There are lots of garages off that street, and I wound up parking in the first one I saw, not knowing I probably could've gotten a lot closer.  I just know that I've never done an Ironman where it was eerie how quiet the streets were and there was no line of cars waiting to get into town.  I've also never had to pay for parking at one of these things before, but $5 wasn't that terrible.

I grabbed my bag with my swim stuff and headed down to transition, which was way too long of a walk.  I wasted no time in there, stopping only to put bottles on my bike, make sure the tires were pumped and put it in a good gear to start.  I was at my bike for a grand total of about ninety seconds before heading to double check my gear bags.  I added a banana to my run bag and then turned on my Garmin in the bike bag to the multisport mode and again, quickly hit the road.  Because now we had to walk another mile down to the swim start.  Seriously, this race was more like 142.3 or something.

Anyway, after wondering if I might ever see the water I'd be swimming in, I finally made it down there to get body marked, eating my Powerbar on the way.  At that point there wasn't much to do aside from wait.  Oddly, I didn't see anyone else from the team even though they had to be somewhere.  Instead I just found a nice spot of grass and sat down.  To be honest, there weren't a lot of thoughts going through my head there.  In my past couple of Ironman races it's been more like, "What am I doing here?  I didn't train hard enough.  This is going to be awful."  I didn't know what to expect, but not in the bad way.  It was more just like, let's see how this goes and just do what you need to do.

Eventually I decided it was time to put on the swim skin, asked a stranger to zip me up and headed toward the water.  Had my Powergel and made my way over to the lake.  It's strange to be starting a race that you really have no idea what you're getting into.  Most other races I do I know the course perfectly and this one was going to be a complete surprise.  I decided to start the swim on the far right so as to avoid spending the first half mile worried that I might actually die from drowning after people tried to swim over me.  Plus, with the nature of that swim course, it is impossible to get off course and you don't lose much time by swimming wide.  I stood in the 80-degree water shivering for a while before swimming up to where I thought might be a good place to start.  It was strange, I wasn't anxious or nervous or anything.  More importantly, I also wasn't thinking about how I'd rather be anywhere else but in that water.

Suddenly, the cannon fired and we were off.  I went out pretty hard and there was the usual contact right away but it didn't take long at all for me to actually start swimming.  It also didn't take me that long to realize I was swimming way harder than I'd be able to maintain for 2.4 miles because my legs were already burning from kicking, so I tried to settle into a steady rhythm while still maintaining some decent speed.  I was wide enough outside the buoys that I hardly ever bumped into anyone, which was nice.  I was actually surprised when we hit the first turn buoy because it seemed early for that, but I got around that without much issue and started coming back in.  I remained wide right but since we would be taking a right turn into the canal eventually it might have actually made things shorter than if you directly followed the buoys.  Either way, I was still fine and not worried about contact.

The water itself was nice and warm once we got going, although murky which made it hard to see anyone around you.  I am so spoiled by the crystal clear lakes up north.  Eventually we made it to the canal, which is where everyone gets sort of funneled in together which makes things a lot tighter, though aside from two back-to-back kicks to my forehead from the same person, that also wasn't too bad.  I was more concerned that suddenly the water smelled and tasted funny, and in such a way that I had no idea what it reminded me of so I just tried not to think about it.  The water also got really rough in there because with all of those people on such a narrow channel there are waves just bouncing off of the walls and churning things up.  I could feel my legs sinking that late in the race and I missed my wetsuit a little bit, but finally we made a turn and I saw the stairs and was thrilled that it was time to get out.

I exited in 1:11, and I told myself the whole time that I was swimming well and that is my fastest non-wetsuit swim, so I was fine with it.  Would I have liked to have been faster?  Sure, but all in all it wasn't a bad start.  The first transition was pretty quick.  I grabbed my bag and went into the tent where there were a couple of dozen women mobbed around the first bunch of chairs so I ran way down to the end where I had about ten chairs to myself.  A volunteer came to help me out and put my race belt on me while I put on my shoes, and put my nutrition in my back pockets while I dealt with my helmet and glasses.  Seriously, talk about service!  I chugged down about two thirds of a bottle of sports drink to get a head start on the hydration, stopped for another five seconds to get my back and shoulders slathered in sunscreen, and ran up to get my bike.

Oh, the trusty bike.  Well, to be honest, even the trusty bike has been letting me down the past couple of years.  I was a little disappointed with my ride in Galveston in April, so with a course that wasn't as flat as that one, I didn't think I'd suddenly have an amazing ride.  I had a heart rate to target, so that's what I did.  Right away, as usual, I was passing people.  I had a few harder surges early on to get away from people and even from that early on there seemed to be some little groups forming or, my favorite, two guys blasting through - one leading and one just blatantly sucking on his wheel.  It was somewhat crowded, but not too bad.  I tried to find that line between not going too hard but also getting away from groups that were driving me nuts.

Eventually I instead decided to let a couple of groups go, knowing that we still had, say, 90-something miles to go and I'd probably beat them all eventually.  After we made the turn onto the big highway I got passed by a little group that was all bunched up and I decided to let them go for a couple of minutes and use it as an opportunity to drink.  I was told I'd have to drink fifteen bottles.  Yes, three hundred ounces, so I had some work to do.  Probably a mere two minutes after I let that group go off in front of me I heard the crashing noises, saw the wheels in the air and the people in the back trying not to crash into anyone who was already down.  See, that is just one of the reasons why you shouldn't ride in a pack in these races!  Two people were left on the ground, one male and one female.  I honestly don't know if they finished or not.  Those of us nearby rode by and continued on.  I know that sounds awful and rude, but right across the street were a couple of police officers working an intersection, so it's not like we were leaving them alone.

After that, as you can imagine, things started to spread out a bit more.  I just spent my time drinking like crazy, taking in my gels and Powerbars and trying to make sure my heart rate stayed where it needed to.  As usual for me in these races, the more miles passed the less people there were around me.  I had a few random people ask me where I was from or tell me I was doing a good job.  I had my Garmin set to split every twenty-eight miles.  I did the first in about an hour and twelve minutes.  Wow.  Then I hit halfway in an overall time of 2:28.  Now, that is some pretty easy math to do and at the time I realized, holy crap, that is on pace for under five hours!  I knew that was a bit of a stretch, but it was still a good feeling.  And early on the course was very fast and every turn we made seemed to put the wind at our backs, which I knew wouldn't last forever.

I didn't know what to expect but I really loved this bike course.  And that's not just because it was fast.  Sure, some of the roads were a bit rough but mostly it was just riding on some very pleasant back roads by farms and stuff.  The course had more hills than I thought but it broke things up nicely.  There were also tons of aid stations, which definitely helped.  As for getting down fifteen bottles, I completely lost count after only about four or five, so I have no clue.  I do know that I never felt dehydrated and my stomach never bothered me.  After sixty miles or so, I was more and more alone.  At mile seventy-four, I passed my first female pro.  Gradually I was passing less and less women until I got to the point where the only people I saw were men, and even then there were hardly any of them.  In fact, at one point late in the ride I got a bit concerned that I took a wrong turn or something because there was not a soul in sight in front of me.

I knew I had slowed down and the winds had kicked up and that wasn't helping, but it also wasn't quite that demoralizing wind that makes you want to give up and throw your bike on the side of the road.  It just meant you had to use some different gears.  Finally we were approaching the end of the ride and I was definitely ready to get off.  I mean, it was fun and all, but a person can only stand being in a bike saddle for so long.  I took my feet out of my shoes and reached the dismount line before crossing into transition and handing off my bike.  I forgot how nice that was.  I glanced at my Garmin and was amazed that I had set a new Ironman bike PR.  Previously it was a 5:15 I rode in Kona in 2006.  In 2006 I was in some sort of otherworldly place fitness-wise, so it was incredible to beat that by six minutes, finishing in just over 5:09.  I hadn't set a PR in anything since about 2007, so it was certainly a good feeling.  But, well, now I still had to run a marathon.

As I ran through transition my legs felt... well, they felt like I had just bike 112 miles in a mere five hours and nine minutes.  But one thing I made sure to do all day was remain very present.  By that I just mean never getting ahead of myself or wondering how I was going to run an entire marathon, or being upset my swim split wasn't faster or whatever.  I took it all one mile at a time, so I didn't go through T2 thinking that I'd just wrecked my marathon.  I just thought about putting on my shoes and stuff and running the first mile.

I had about a four-person team of volunteers helping me out, which made things easier.  I just threw on my shoes and socks, stuffed my gels and Clif bloks in my pockets, threw on my visor, ate the banana and was on my way.  Even after only sitting down for a minute my legs felt much better as I ran out.  Right away as I began running I saw Tim Snow.  Tim is a great spectator, even when he's racing, and fortunately this time he didn't have to yell at me to keep my eyes up or anything as I was actually running.  I don't remember the last time I set out on a run course feeling anything aside from absolute dread.  I wasn't delusional and thinking I'd somehow run a 3:40 or something either, but I also wasn't afraid that my run would take longer than my bike as has happened in my last couple of races.  And again, I just wanted to take it one mile at a time.

I'm sure I went out too hard, but amazingly, it was already kind of fun.  I was careful to seriously hydrate at the aid stations and dump lots of water on my head and use the icy cold sponges.  I have to say, the aid stations at this race were phenomenal.  The volunteers kept up with the crazy demands as there were always cups being held out.  Sometimes if you grabbed a sponge a volunteer would run behind you and wring another one out on the back of your neck.  There was plenty of ice to dump down my shirt and sometimes people with hoses.  You'd think it would be difficult to keep up on a three-loop run course, but they did an amazing job.  I really don't think they could've done any better.

By the third aid station, I was ready to start walking those.  Not because I was exhausted and needed a break, but because I knew a huge key would be getting in enough hydration and walking through would help with that, but also in training I never ran more than thirteen miles straight so I knew my legs just weren't ready to handle the pounding of twenty-six consecutive miles.  So to avoid walking like, the last four, I just walked each aid station and it always refreshed me enough to keep going pretty well to the next one.

It was the weirdest thing.  I actually had fun running that marathon.  I mean, sure, I was ready for it to be done when it was done, and it was certainly far from my fastest, but I never felt badly about how things were going.  And given the conditions, I was still passing lots of people.  The course also went along the canal where there were tons of spectators which also made it more fun.  The heat never bothered me, so thank you, Alabama.  My stomach never bothered me as I was able to get in all of my nutrition.  I might feel something weird in my stomach for about a minute at some point after having a gel or something on the run, but the feeling would go away as quickly as it had arrived.

I had no idea how fast or slow I was running.  I purposely had my heart rate monitor display my heart rate only.  There was no reason to see more than that.  So I was clueless as to how things were going.  Was I going to run 4:10?  4:30?  I had no idea.  I knew it wouldn't be great, but the last two of these were about five and six hours respectively, so something in the four-hour range was going to make me happy.

Due to the nature of the course having no out and backs, I almost didn't see anyone.  Amanda Kourtz and Cait passed me on the run, and Pat Wheeler passed me just before he finished and I headed out for my third run loop, but I never saw a lot of the rest of the team, including Jesse.  Of course the QT2 spectators were out in full force so they at least knew I was doing all right.  I almost couldn't believe how fast the miles were going by.  Somewhere around mile 21 I had a banana at one of the aid stations since my hands started to feel kind of... puffy, I don't know.  But that made me feel better and I just kept on going.  Okay, so my aid station walk breaks were getting longer each time, but I still knew I'd be able to make it and I wasn't giving up.

22, 23... wow, is it really almost over?  I wonder how I'm doing?  I had my last Clif blok at mile 24 and was so glad to be done with my fueling plan.  Admittedly I took some Coke from the last two aid stations just to get me through, but I was almost done, anyway.  Once I hit the last turn-around at a short out-and-back I picked up the pace, knowing that when I reached the end this time I'd get to bypass that arrow to the second and third laps and head down that glorious lane that read, "to finish."

I had no idea how far to the finish I had to go, I just kept trying to run hard and get there as fast as I could.  The fact that I was able to pick up the pace at all probably means I could've done the whole thing faster, but I don't really care.  Finally I thought I was there, ran down this hill at whatever full speed I could muster at that point in the race only to see I had to turn around and run back up in order to finish.  Well, that was sort of mean!  But finally I turned to run up the hill and saw the finish arch and looked up to see 10:45 on the clock.  I smiled.  Finally!  I crossed the line in 10:46 with a marathon of 4:19.  Yes, in the not-so-distant future a 4:19 marathon will be a huge disappointment.  But at the moment, I am completely happy with it.

My finish line catchers were awesome and I got my medal and shirt and hat and they got me some food so I could just sit down.  There was nobody there but fortunately Michelle finished only a few minutes after me so I wasn't alone for long.  I called my mom and texted some people and really just felt so good to have finished the race that I was happy with.  More importantly, it gives me hope for things to come.  Honestly, two months ago when I started this whole winter journey I was in pretty rough shape.  So if in two months I can do that, just imagine what can happen in another two months.

I want to thank all of you who cheered whether in person or from afar, or those of you who posted encouraging words on my blog or through e-mails or texts or even just "liked" any of my facebook posts.  I often feel like I'm in this alone but that always makes me remember that I have a lot of people who are pulling for me.  I need to thank my coach, Jesse, who has been far more patient than I deserved over the past few years but never stopped trying to help me and bring me back.  I know he doesn't waste time with anything he knows isn't going to get anywhere, so just the fact that he was willing to continue to work with me told me I shouldn't give up just yet.  Another special thanks to my new friend Kelli who opened her home to me in Birmingham so I could train through the winter in the heat.  I don't think this race would've been possible without that.

And of course to my family who could not attend the race because my cousin Kevin got married the night before.  And I'm sorry, Kevin, for missing the event!  My family has been very supportive and especially my mom who has just been amazing through a lot of things over the past couple of years.  And of course any other friends and teammates who ever said anything encouraging.  You know who you are.

It has been a pretty rough couple of years for a variety of reasons.  Yes, some were out of my control but a lot of it was my own fault, but finally I've been able to pull out of it and I really can only look forward to whatever races I do next.  Now that's the big question: What races do I do next?  I'm not signed up for anything!  But one thing I've decided already is that in the not-too-distant future, people are going to have to be scared of my run again.  It's in there somewhere and I'm getting dangerously close to finding it.

Night Before the Race...

How did it get here so fast?  When I woke up this morning and realized that it was my last normal morning waking up it seemed impossible.  And yet I had to get up and make my way to the Cheesecake Factory for the QT2 breakfast.  No, we did not eat cheesecake.  But one of the athletes on the team works for the corporate office apparently and had this awesome breakfast set up just for us.  Sure beat Denny's, let me tell you.  Eggs, hash browns, toast, really good pancakes, it was great.  I managed to get sufficiently full without crossing that line into feeling like I might explode.  Perfect.

Next it was time to go drop off my bags and bike.  Let me just say that the Ironman Texas athlete guide is nearly useless when it comes to information on where to go and, more importantly, where to park for everything.  First I had no idea really where to park for the expo and just wound up getting lucky stumbling upon the expo and finding someone pulling out of a spot just as I drove up.  Otherwise mostly athletes were parking quite far away and walking around trying to figure out where to go.  Then today for transition I really had no clue where it was aside from a very general location and again, no indication on where I should park.  Fortunately I found another athlete walking along with his bike who knew where he was going because he had already driven around and figured it out.

Once I got there, dropping everything off was quick and painless and I headed back to my hotel after picking up a sandwich.  Fortunately that sandwich was not from Subway.  Then began a long afternoon of doing just what I needed to do: nothing.  I ate, I took a nap that I tried not to let go on too long so I couldn't fall asleep nice and early tonight, I watched TV, mixed up my bottles and got my stuff laid out for the morning and that was pretty much it. 

It's very strange staying by myself for this race.  In some ways it's kind of nice because I like to be kind of completely in control of when I do things before the race and I'm certainly used to being by myself lately, but it's still just kind of weird.  And not that I usually have too many issues, but it is certainly going to be interesting after the race when I don't have anyone to make sure I can still, like, move and stuff.  Oh, well, at least I pre-emptively purchased some post-race treats so I won't have to go anywhere to get anything when I wake up in the middle of the night starving.  Or, more accurately, when I just decide I need more food as I lie awake completely unable to fall asleep all night long due to spending the day ingesting obscene amounts of caffeine and sugar in the form of sports nutrition products along with throbbing pain throughout my entire body that won't allow me to get comfortable.  Really, I promise it's a good feeling.

So if all goes well, by this time tomorrow night I should not only be done, but maybe even already enjoying some celebratory post-race food.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to really enjoy it given the wreck my stomach is sure to be after a long, hot race, but I am sure at that point I won't care.  I'll have 1800 miles of driving home to enjoy lots of road treats instead of my more recent drives that have involved water and protein bars.  Yes, due to the heat I am supposed to take in fifteen bottles of fluid over the course of the bike alone.  For those of you who might not fully understand what that means, that's three hundred ounces.  It will be interesting to see how that goes. 

Currently the rest of my family is at my cousin Kevin's wedding, for which I've already seen a few pictures on facebook.  It's too bad I had to miss it but hopefully tomorrow will make that and this entire excursion worth it.  It's time to see if I can finally get one of these races right.  At least I feel mentally and physically prepared.  Now all I have to do is execute the plan.  We shall see what happens...