Race Report: White Lake Half 2013

After the last time I raced White Lake Half I said I'd never do it again. Well, 3 years went by, I forgot the pain, and I signed up yet again. I wanted to race a half prior to Rev3 Williamsburg in June since the first half I do each season tends to be less than stellar and this race fit well into my training schedule. Plus they moved it up a month so I knew it wouldn't be blazing hot on the run like usual. 

The Jester, Kurt,& TriGuy also signed up for this race as a relay team, their goal being to beat moi. The Jester, always one for a gentleman's bet, bet our friend Jeff that he would beat me in the swim. Jeff backed me and accepted with the agreement that the loser had to take 3 shots of the winner's picking with 1 minute in between each. Justin also orchestrated another bet with Jeff that Kurt would beat me on the bike with a handicap of 7 minutes. Jeff backed me again, putting a total of 6 shots on the line and some pressure on me to beat each leg of "2 Bananas & an Egg Yolk." 

Swim - 37:46 (1:47/100 yds)
Conditions for the swim were rough to say the least. Water temperature was about 54 degrees! Easily the coldest water I've ever swam in. I spent a good half hour the night before the race searching the Internet for tips on how to best deal with swimming in cold water. I did all of the following and they worked pretty well, as I didn't feel that cold while in the water. 

*Wear the appropriate gear: BlueSeventy Helix full sleeve wetsuit, BlueSeventy neoprene cap, & BlueSeventy neoprene booties

*Wear earplugs

*Rub petroleum jelly on any exposed skin, especially your face

*Before getting in the water splash the water onto your face for 10-15 seconds

*When you submerge your head under the water blow bubbles to help prevent the hyperventilation reflex

*Warm up for 10-15 minutes

Aside from the extreme cold, the other challenging aspect of the swim was the chop. It felt like I was swimming in the ocean over top of waves! It was the worst swimming out to the first buoy and after I made the first turn I just tried to stay on the feet of two other red capped swimmers. I could tell one of them was sighting pretty well and I followed her because I was having trouble seeing the buoys over the swells and was doing breaststroke to get my bearings. I knew the swim would be slow for everyone, so even though I had the slowest swim I've had in a while, I'm not reading too much into it. I was in 4th place at this point. 

T1 - 2:37
Even though I didn't feel that cold while swimming, maybe it was because I was numb. When I got out of the water it hurt to run b/c my feet were frozen and I fumbled around in transition forever because my fingers were void of dexterity. 

Bike - 2:42:15 (20.7 mph)
The bike felt like one huge headwind with plenty of cross winds in the mix. I did a much better job of staying in the aero position, but I'm not used to riding on flat ground, for that long, at that effort, using the same muscles. I tried to switch positions and get out of the saddle some, but it got pretty uncomfortable! The worst was the last 25 miles which were on a road with a poor surface (understatement). There was literally a crack in the road every meter of the way. Riding in the aero over this ground was so painful I just couldn't do it anymore. I'm sure this cost me time, but there wasn't much else I could do. After the bike I was still in 4th place, though some passing and getting passed occurred on course. 

T2 - 1:10
After a successful flying dismount of the bike, I was in and out of T2 pretty quick. 

Run - 1:27:10 (6:39/mi)
I was interested to see how I'd feel heading out onto the run after such a draining swim/bike. To my delight, my legs felt pretty good! I moved into 3rd place within the first mile. Even though the next two were pretty far ahead, I kept it moving and focused on running smoothly and efficiently. I dropped my pace a little bit once I was over half way and soon after moved into 2nd place. I knew the person in first was pretty far ahead, but I also knew from racing at White Lake in the past that anything could happen. Plus I knew from my mile splits that I was finally going to break 1:30 off the bike and this had me excited! I saw TriGuy and The Shannon around mile 10 and they gave me a boost to pick it up, which I did, but in the end I would have needed a few more miles to reel in the last one. 

Total Time - 4:50:56
I ended up finishing second overall for the women and got a PR on the run and on my half time. So even though it was a tough day on the swim & bike, I can't complain and I feel like this race served it's purpose!

So how did the bet turn out? Well, somehow my brother crushed me in the swim with a time of 33 minutes and change! With the amount of training that he's put in & the amount that I've put in, a discrepancy like that is just not fair! Kurt also beat me flat out on the bike by 3 minutes. And their relay team beat my total time by about 2 minutes. So, it was their day and each of them had a great race. Congrats to TriGuy on his 10 minute PR 1/2 marathon! Poor Jeff, I feel so bad that he's got 6 shots waiting for him next time we go out, but maybe I'll help him out with one or two of them, haha. All in all it was a fun day, though I'm saying it for the second time - I'm never racing White Lake Half again.

Race Report: Azalea Sprint Tri 2013

Saturday was my first race of the season - the Azalea Sprint Tri held at the campus of UNC-Wilmington. For some reason I thought that this race was going to be warm. It didn't register that even though the high was going to be mid-60's, I'd be racing at 8 am when it was high-30's/low 40's. It was sooo cold the morning of the race, reminiscent of Beach2Battleship weather. Here's how it all went down:

Swim (300 yds) - 4:16

This swim was in the UNCW pool, which I always enjoy swimming in. Participants are sent off 15 seconds apart and snake up and down the lanes. It's a little tricky because at one end of the pool you have to flip-turn underneath the lane ropes. I entered a seed time of 1:17 and was the 14th person to go (which, on a side note was a good omen b/c 14 was my soccer number at W&M). My swim coach, Matt Clancy of E3 Elite Human Performance, told me "not to win it in the first 25" and I took this advice to heart and it worked out really well. Instead of starting out too hard on the swim and paying for it towards the end, I maintained a good pace throughout and was able to pick it up for the last few laps. I even passed 2 people in front of me! I had my brother time me since the timing mat for the swim finish is not until you exit the pool, run down a flight of stairs, and run outside. My actual swim time was 3:50 (1:16/100 yds), pretty darn close to my seed time and 15 seconds faster than I went 2 years ago at this race. I didn't know it at this point, but the swim was going to be the most enjoyable leg of the race...

T1 - 1:44

Running from inside the warm pool area to the freezing cold outdoor air was absolutely horrible. My body kept moving forward, against the wishes of my brain to turn around! The run into transition was pretty far and during this time I started thinking that I wanted to put on my wind vest and gloves. But, then I got to T1 and I saw another woman run in, grab her bike, and go, so I decided to scrap the vest/gloves idea and just get out on the course. 

Bike (10 mi) - 24:20

The bike was pretty unpleasant because it was so damn cold. It was also windy, which prevented me from riding in my aero bars for a lot of it. I also just got the bearings on my bike replaced and the handling is so much more sensitive now than it used to be, and I'm still getting used to this. The course was completely flat with a bunch of turns and it went by fast. I didn't pay attention to my speed, just tried to make sure I was working hard. I caught myself thinking about something else one time during the bike, but quickly got my mind back into the right gear. I ended up catching one woman on the bike and no women passed me, which I was pretty psyched about!

T2 - 1:23

Coming into T2, I was totally frozen. It took me forever to undo the strap on my helmet, take off my bike shoes, and put on my running shoes because my fingers were so numb. This resulted in a painfully slow T2 and the girl I caught on the bike passed me. 

Run (5K) - 19:36

Heading out onto the run I could see the girl who had passed me and was able to pass her pretty early on. I knew there was another girl ahead of me who had started a couple minutes ahead of me on the swim and I knew there was one behind me that I had to stave off by at least 45 seconds. I felt pretty bad on the run, especially on the first 1-1.5 miles. It was like I was so cold that I was almost hyperventilating and couldn't take big full breaths; they were more like short shallow breaths. This improved a little bit as I warmed up some during the run, but I never felt great like I thought I would and my pace wasn't what I was expecting it to be. Regardless, I ended up reeling in the woman in front of me and passing her in the last mile. When I was rounding one of the final turns near the natatorium, a spectator was walking across my path. I yelled out "excuse me" but it was too late - I ran right into him at full speed and I'm not sure, but I think he might have fallen down. I felt bad about this, but was so close to the finish and the win that I didn't stop. I sprinted down the finish chute and across the final timing mat. I waited 45 seconds and then realized I had won! At the same time I felt sick. I was kind of dizzy and shaky. I got checked out by the medic and vitals were normal, but it took me a long time to stop shivering and to start feeling better. It was a really weird feeling. I'm chalking it up to being really cold, not having done much high intensity training, and not being used to "red-lining" for that long. 

Total - 51:16 (1st OA female) 

So, I ended up winning the race, which was a great way to kick of the 2013 season! Gotta say I'm pretty happy with this start!

Here are some other things that made this weekend and race super awesome:

• Kurt & TriGuy also competed in the race, their first gladiator show down of the year. It was a nail-biter, but TriGuy edged it out on the run. Next face off will be Rev3 Williamsburg!
• I got to see my Rev3 teammate Rachel Stephenson, AKA "Glenda the Good Witch of the North," crush her first triathlon ever! Way to go @GtGWotN!
• My whole family came out to cheer everyone on! Thanks mom, dad, Jester & Claire!
• I got to witness TriGuy pull the ace of spaces twice in a row in two consecutive games of High Card against my dad, brother, & Kurt, resulting in him having to drink 2 shots of whiskey!
• We all went to a neighbor's fish fry party where the cinnamon moonshine was plentiful
• Kurt &I rode 60 miles on Sunday and got a slight sunburn - YES!!!! Summer is coming!!!

Last but not least, the I Heart Swimming Blog Raffle Results! Congrats to Andrew Corbin winner of an SBR Sports prize pack containing TriSwim shampoo, TriSwim conditioner, TriSwim body wash, TriSwim lotion, TriSlide, & Foggle! And the winner of the funniest Chuck Norris joke is Teddy Kelsay with "There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures that Chuck Norris has allowed to live." He will receive a box of PowerBar's brand new Performance Energy Blends made from real fruit! Thanks to everyone who entered and for those who didn't, you have to play to win ;)

Race Report: Quintiles 1/2 Marathon 2011

Wooo hoooo!!!!! I finally did it – I finally ran a half marathon under 1:30:00!! For the last few years it feels like I have been stuck at a certain pace, which has made me question whether I could really go sub 1:30. Heading into the Quintiles 1/2 marathon this year, I knew that my training on the run had been solid – I rarely skip a run and I usually do all my speedwork. However, I felt really tired on Saturday and was on my feet for most of the day: in the morning I went to David’s Bridal for my dress fitting, then ran errands for the wedding, went dress shopping with my mom, and then hit packet pick up late afternoon. By the time I got home and was able to put my feet up it was already dinner time! We rented a movie (The Fighter) and I slept through the first hour or so of it I was so tired. Got to bed at a decent hour and woke up feeling surprisingly good and refreshed.

Race morning was slightly stressful due to running a little bit behind schedule. By the time Kurt, my mom, my dad, and I got to the race start it was 6:15. I barely had time to drop off my bag, hit the john, and get in a warm up before 6:38 rolled around and the race was off! I started close to the front of the start, but still found myself running around people at the beginning. Immediately I felt pretty good. My plan was to start at 7:00 minute miles and get to 6:50 by mile 2-3 and then hold that or drop below if I felt good. My first mile was 6:49. My next two miles were below this and I still felt good. At this point I was pretty confident I could go under 1:30 today. However, it was still scary looking down at my watch at times and seeing 6:40 and wondering whether or not I was just going to blow up later on. I figured what the heck I felt good, just go with it and see what happens. Plus, there was a strong looking female in front of me and I decided to try to stay with her for a while. She had a biker next to her who kept yelling out “First woman!” and I thought, “Man I must be doing really well!” Then a mile or so later she yelled, “First woman marathoner!” which gave me a good laugh. But, it worked out well for me b/c there was one part of the course that had a significant head wind and I just drafted behind her for that part of it ϑ Once we turned into some neighborhoods, the winds dissipated a little bit and I decided to push it harder b/c I was still feeling good. I passed a few more women and by the time I was half way through, decided to pick it up a little bit. I’d say that I started feeling the pain around mile 9. I was ok with this though b/c I knew I had done two to three 15-16 milers in training with the last 4 miles at speed, and I knew that since I made it during training I would make it to the finish line today. At this point I knew I was going to reach my goal. I found another person to draft off of by the time I got to the headwind portion for the second time – funnily enough he was another marathoner and I could barely keep up with him! I finished the race as the 4th female overall and ended up negative splitting the race which is awesome – my average speed for the first half was 6:45/mi and was 6:30/mi for the second half. Total time, according to my Garmin was 1:27:40 for 13.25 mi (average of 6:37 min/mi).

It was a great feeling to finally break through the 1:30:00 barrier and an even better feeling to do it by smashing my old PR by roughly 3 minutes! This race has gotten me really excited about how far I can go with my run because I know for sure that I can go faster than I did today in a half marathon. I was tentative on the first half of this race b/c I wasn’t sure that I could hold that pace for that long, but, now I know for sure that I can. Plus, this also gives me confidence that I can target a 1:30:00 run off the bike in a 70.3 by the end of this season! I feel like the door is now wide open for me.

Of note, it was also a great day for Kurt, who beat his old PR by 20 minutes!!!! Who does that??! He ran a 1:44 today, which is faster than he has ever run a half marathon before, including even before cancer! Looks like the vegan diet is continuing to pay dividends! My parents also had solid races – my dad finished sub 2:30:00 and my mom (who was sick and ran then whole thing anyway) finished in a little over 2:30:00. Great job and congrats to everyone out there today!