Running Commentary

Love Myself

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 02 May 2024 19:12:00 +0000

Mark 12:31 tells me I am to "love your neighbor as yourself."

I remember the first time I heard that verse. I asked the question "but what if I hate myself?

It wasn't a rhetorical question. I was serious.

I've worked hard since that time to love my neighbor but loving myself isn't nearly as easy.

My husband HATES when people say "you have to love yourself" but I ask him every time we get into the discussion ....what about that verst? It implies that you need to love yourself first. He always says that is not what the verse means.

I think he's wrong. I think the verse assumes that we DO love ourselves more than we love others. We put ourselves first, we think of ourselves first, we care for ourselves first...

But what if we don't...

I recently had a very dear friend tell me I need to love myself more. This friend said "I'm going to check in with you once a week to make sure you are doing something each week to that end."

This is my report for this past week:

Things I did to love ME...

I made/went to a therapy appointment.
I invited A LOT of people to a "We'll be seeing you" party* so I could get and give hugs.
I bought myself a bike that I really wanted but really did NOT need!
I made sure to eat...this seems crazy but I have been really busy so eating has taken a back seat on some days.
I wrote in my journal.
I found a new therapist in Michigan*.

By the way, if you know me in real life...*we are moving to Michigan in about 10 days!!!!! If you know me well, check your Facebook event invites because chances are high that you were invited to the party.

Hold on, we are going on a ride.....

Road to Nice-Week 1 Training Update

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 16:25:00 +0000

I started training this week...I don't have a plan yet, that's coming, but I started laying the ground work. I want to keep track of how I'm feeling throughout this year and this is just as good a place as any.

Monday was a FULL day because I was subbing spin for 2 classes (9:30am and Noon) plus teaching my own 5:30am spin class and my 8am Aqua class. I threw in some Hotworx stretching. I had planned on going super easy for the 3rd spin class but once I got warmed up I hit it pretty hard. I was feeling pretty good.

Dwayne came home from work early Monday not feeling well so I decided to spend the night in the guest room! He then woke up Tuesday with a fever! I did yoga at home and then went to the pool for a mile swim.

I'm treating myself like a brand new swimmer. I have been struggling with my swim since the brain disease. I don't know how but I really think it's related somehow...but I've decided that I CAN and I WILL overcome this issue. I just have to swim MORE. I just have to really finalize a training schedule because it does NOT work for me to swim on Monday/Wednesday/Friday before or after Aqua class because either way I'm WORN OUT to the point that either my swim suffers or my class suffers.

I ended up taking Dwayne to urgent care. They tested him for the flu, covid and strep throat. They were all negative but they told him he surely had one of the big three. So I slept in the guest room again...but work up Wednesday with a fever! UGH I got a sub for Aqua and cancelled my noon Spin class and slept pretty much all day. Thursday I ran a mile with Dwayne-we were both feeling MUCH better. The pace was just over 10min with a fast finish (5:30 pace). And we both felt good afterward. It must have been some kind of 24hr bug.

Friday I swam a mile, taught Aqua, then did Hotworx yoga and taught Spin again. I'm pretty sure my BP was down after all of that because I really didn't feel great. This morning it was down to 95/66...

This morning I got my trainer all set up (which took a while) and started the IMNice course....HOLY CRAP...within the first like 5 miles it got up to a 10.8% grade climb!! I am not quite strong enough for that yet. (Not to mention the trainer is inside and we don't have the fans set up yet!) I skipped over to the part that starts going down hill for just a little bit. That was much better!!

Dwayne bought me a VERY NICE new bike that should help me climb better!! It came in this week. I'm a little scared to ride it. At the same time I'm so stinking excited to get on that bike I can hardly wait! They should get it built the first part of the week.

I've also started losing weight.

My plan is to get in the best shape of my life this year.🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

Thank you Lord for giving me this opportunity!

Thanks for sticking around! :D

Running in the Park

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:04:00 +0000

When I heard the run was at a place called Shelby Farm I don't know why but I thought the run would be mostly flat. Looking back I can't even understand why I thought that. Friends had run a relay out there and had told me it wasn't flat. AND the course description on the website says "rolling" so who knows WHY I would have thought it was going to be more flat...

The training runs I did leading up were thankfully NOT flat. I didn't run quite enough miles leading up to race day, but at least I had been running...some...

My highest volume week was 20 miles at the beginning of September and my average was only 9 a week...but at least I was running...some...

My plan for the run was to run 3 minutes/walk 1 minute...the whole time...no matter what the elevation...

And I did that!

For twelve minutes...and then I walked extra at the aid station...and went to the bathroom (even though I had gone just a few minutes before, as I was leaving T2...). Then the negotiations started...I did run more than I expected that I might, but I was on the struggle bus for sure.

I LOVED the course for spectators....I had six people who came out to watch me, and there were 2 friends who were doing the relay that were done with the swim and bike who were out on the course watching, along with 3 other friends who were there watching their runner and other friends who was doing the whole thing.

The course winds through Shelby Farms in an interesting way...If you imagine a clock face...you leave T2 and run clockwise around the lake from "noon to noon"... then clockwise around the upper part of the park from "six to six"...then it goes counterclockwise in an inner circle from "six to six"...then you repeat the whole thing. Spectators have A LOT of opportunities to see their athlete. My sweet friends spread out all over the park so it felt like I was constantly seeing people I knew! It. Was. AWESOME! Not to mention the aid stations were all high energy. On top of that, the intersection where the course came back to a point (noon for the lower clockface and six for the upper clockfaces) was SUPER PACKED with people!

As if that wasn't enough, the course was BEAUTIFUL...truly fantastic...AND...there was on section that they had dedicated to St Jude (who the race was raising money for). They had "before" and "after" banners of patients who treated there.

I SOBBED the first time ...okay, and the second time...

Early on I came upon a guy from Huntsville whose kids participated in my kids triathlon (Kids Fly Tri). I ran with him for just a bit. He really made my day by telling me his kids loved it so much they did (or maybe just his son did) another triathlon the next month! That put some pep in my step!

With only a few miles to go I saw the friend I started the swim with and another Huntsville Ironman who was doing the race...they were off the course with Dwayne....I was STRUGGLING as I was running toward them. I had resorted to counting time (3 minutes is 180 seconds so I would start counting as I would start running 180, 179...and try to get to 0...even if I counted fast...even if I slowed down....it didn't always work but I know it had me running more than I would have otherwise!). When I saw them I heard them say something about how I looked strong. But I thought they had finished and had time to have their post race snack and they were rested enough to be out on the course cheering on friends! I realized not long after that they were just stopped taking a breather....they were still working on finishing the run! That made me feel MUCH better about my time.

See, back in June when training was going REALLY WELL I had set an A goal for myself of 6:30. I honestly felt at the time it might be possible to even get down to 6:15! But for some reason after the end of July the wheels sort of fell off the wagon so my A goal had revised. Realistically I was thinking 6:45-7:00. When I started the run I really felt that goal time was solidly doable.

But, as I mentioned before, I was a little behind on nutrition when I got off the bike. I didn't have a SOLID plan for nutrition on the run other than I planned to take Gatorade at every station and a gel at every third station. I was going to drink Coke when I felt completely empty and keep drinking it after that point.

The only issue was that I didn't feel like eating the gels when I was supposed to, Gatorade really stopped tasting good and I resorted to Red Bull instead of Coke way too early...

But, I kept doing the math and kept thinking 7:00 was doable...until the last maybe quarter.

October 4, 2023...I don't know why I never finished this post but it's been over a year. I wish I could remember the end better....I just remember passing two friends from HSV who were also racing. I thought they had finished so I whizzed by thinking what a slug I was...only to find out later that they had not finished yet-they were still working their way to the finish line....

I also remember how strong I felt. Even with a 7:05 finish (28th by the way...which is VERY FUNNY since I just wrote my IMChoo 23 report...I finished 28th there, and 28th at IMChoo 15!! I will be THRILLED to pieces if I finish 28th at Worlds!!

I didn't LOVE the bike course at Memphis, but I think that was a matter of expectation. I expected it to be the glorious rollers like Chatty has-that is the BEST BIKE COURSE EVER-but it was what I would call "hilly". Not hard climbs, but rollers ROLL into the next climb so you get momentum from one to the next. Hilly means you climb, descend, ride flat a bit and then repeat. Plus the road was rough. The run was super fun being contained in Shelby Farm. You get to see people the whole time! I'd definitely do this one again.

Thanks for sticking with me!!

Living in a Fairy Tale--Almost

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 03:32:00 +0000

I have been putting off writing my IMChoo race recap because honestly I feel like I'm in the middle of a dream. There's been a slight fear that sitting down to write this will be what wakes me up.

So far so good...

Let me start this by going all the way back to IMChoo 2015. I trained "hard" for that race (although now that I'm reading my recap, apparently not quite enough for the swim!). I had a time goal (sub 13) and I executed well enough to beat my goal by 9 minutes.

And then the wheels FELL OFF....I started having weird symptoms and then in March of the next year I got the Autoimmune Encephalopathy diagnosis. I treated with VERY high dose IV steroids for just over a year. I gained about 30-35 pounds and lost pretty much all my fitness. I went from being able to swim a "comfortable" 1:55/100 to not being able to swim...from being able to do my speed work in the low 8:00 paces to not being able to walk a 20 minute mile...from lifting heavy weights to not being able to hold up a dress on a hanger! (Not to mention the neurological issues.)

Fast forward 5 years...last year I did the Memphis 70.3 on October 1st. I had been swimming, but pretty much ALL with fins and just drills. That was a wetsuit swim and it was HORRIBLE. I kept telling myself I never had to swim again just to get through it. I really TRIED to swim more but I didn't swim AT ALL from February to July, and had only 10 swims (with fins and a snorkel) until race day. (More about this in a minute.)

The one thing I did do fairly consistently was my long ride. I started in April with a short, easy, 50 minute ride and went up to 112 miles on Labor Day, plus teaching A LOT of spin bike classes. I also did my "long" runs on a hilly route...but my longest run was 13.1 (a half marathon 2 weeks prior to the race).

Another thing I did even more consistently was STRENGTH TRAIN!! My good friend, owner/operator of Iron Tribe Fitness, Ironman himself, and co-host to Fit Fat Dad Podcast, offered to program a twice-per-week plan for me specifically designed to improve my running/biking and swimming. Uh, yes please!! I started in January and went strong until IM training wore me out to the point my strength workouts were suffering (basically the end of July). I saw significant gains that translated into not only a much stronger performance, less injury and less overall fatigue! I can't recommend Iron Tribe (Prime*) Fitness highly enough! (*Prime is a specific "flavor" of Iron Tribe. It's not the "regular" ITF workouts, which are great...it's a personalized plan built for an individual's specific goals.

My MAIN goal for Choo 23 was to get to the start line feeling at least somewhat trained and healthy.

CHECK and CHECK.

I was only VERY slightly concerned about the swim. Back in January I found out that, apparently, chlorine can displace iodine in the thyroid! Well my thyroid numbers have been bad since before I had the brain disease. So my doctor suggested I take a break from swimming. At the same time I also switched thyroid hormone brands. My numbers improved at my next blood draw! Was it from not swimming or from the change in meds?? Well, I decided it was better to not swim than to find out! I ended up only having 10 swims total from July until race day. I just kept thinking "it's a down river swim...it's going to be fine" (spoiler alert-I was right!)

One other big change this time around is that I have been teaching Aqua Fitness classes (from the pool deck) for a little over a year now. I LOVE IT!! I get a decent workout teaching on deck and I LOVE the people (mostly ladies and a few men) who take the classes I teach three days a week. I truly believe teaching these classes has helped my overall fitness level improve.

RACE WEEKEND

When I originally signed up to do the race I thought we were going to have a whole house full of friends there but it ended up only being one friend who stayed with us. Honestly I was fine with that...it wasn't my first and I wasn't going out for a PR...and I truly wasn't 100% sure I would finish. We rented the CUTEST AirBnB and drove up on Friday for packet pick-up.

Ironman Village was like a ghost town!!! It was the strangest thing. There were VERY few vendors and very few athletes (only about 1500 registered compared to pre-covid days of 2500-3000. It felt like I was picking up a packet for a local 5k except you don't get a big backpack full of race bags or a wristband at a local 5k!

I picked up all my stuff, checked in at the AirBnB and we headed just out of town to see other friends of ours (AKA Thunder and Lightning!). I LOVE these friends! They are both HILARIOUS and their house is like a museum with a botanical garden yard! They fixed us these YUMMY drinks with flavored balsamic vinegar, sugar-free syrup and fresh basil! It might sound gross...but read that again...YUMMY!! So yummy that we had to go buy WAY too many sugar-free syrups and flavored vinegars to bring home!!! After that we went to dinner at a DELICIOUS vegan restaurant, Cashew. Now, I'm not a full on vegan like my amazing daughter, but I don't like to eat very heavily before a race, I try not to eat dairy, and I LOVE good vegan food. This place was ALL that and more! It was so good I got a full meal to put in the fridge to eat Sunday after my race was over.

Early to bed Friday night and up Saturday for an easy shake out run. The adorable house was JUST off the course on the North Shore so my friend who came up with us and I walked down Barton to get to Coolidge Park to explore a little there.

I'm not going to lie--I had forgotten what Barton looked like and when I saw it again I was a little intimidated (I'll come back to this when I talk about the run). My run was slow and chopped up but I felt shockingly good. We showered and headed out to check in my bike and my transition bags. I went to the athlete briefing which is where I think I heard they had SIXTY roll down slot for women!! SIXTY...and there were only like 250 women registered!!! We shopped at the little local market before going to do a little more shopping at the balsamic vinegar place! I got back to the house to prep for race day and got to bed early.

I never sleep well before a race so I was up WELL before my 3:30 alarm. I took my meds, ate my breakfast, took my shower (pre-race ritual), got dressed and we headed out MUCH earlier than usual.

I had written out a VERY solid plan for the day so there was no thinking...just doing. Bottles of concentrated Infinite (I had a custom blend) on my wing and one serving in my bullet. Computer on the bullet. Tires pumped (I had NOT planned to slice my finger open on that stupid pump!). Race belt with gels in the run bag. And within a few short minutes, we were on the bus that would take me to the start. Again that feeling that it was the sleepiest, quietest IM start ever. I've been to the two I've done plus Dwayne's, and 2 others with friends...this one was SO QUIET and calm. Even down at the start area. We talked about how close to the actual start I was compared to 2015 and compared to Dwayne's start in 2016.

SWIM

Before long people started gathering in pace areas. I lined up with 1:30-2:00 (that seemed like a VERY big time frame but I didn't make the signs...). I chatted with everyone around me and started getting VERY excited to start the race. I had decided several days prior that if it was wetsuit legal (and it was, barely) I would wear my lava pants (AKA floaty pants) because I feel MUCH better in them than I do in either my full wetsuit or my sleeveless. The air temp was about 50 which was a little cooler than I had expected but the water temp was right at 76 so I knew it would feel good getting in. Right at 7:30 they sang the National Anthem (I LOVE how the crowd gets SILENT in a wave as people realize what is happening!)...and the first ones were off...we SLOWLY made our way to the dock. Right about the time Dwayne moved out of the way to head down the river walk and I got to the path that leads to the dock we heard the announcement that the first swimmer was ALREADY out of the water!!! I knew without a doubt it would be a fast swim! Before long it was my turn...they had us getting in 2 at a time with about 5 seconds between each pair--another BIG indicator the river current was SUPER FAST.... and then it was the moment of truth...BEEP time to jump in.

Usually when I jump in I take a couple of seconds to just RELAX but that day as soon as I jumped in I felt better than I have felt jumping in to swim in a LONG time. And like magic, or like a real swimmer, I started to swim SO EASILY it actually shocked me. It felt completely natural! I took my first site for the buoy...200 meters away...okay, here we go...when took my second look I could NOT believe how CLOSE that buoy was. I second guessed the placement. They said they were 200 meters apart but maybe number 1 was closer? And it seemed like it was my third look I was swimming beside it!! ((I'm sure it was more than just the third, but that's how fast it felt...and I had on my "timer goggles"...I got to that buoy in 1:31!!!!!!!! WHAT? I thought I might be swimming kayak to kayak but I was about 600 or so in before I even thought about anything other than "holy crap this is FAST"....I really started regretting not swimming more because I knew I wouldn't be as fast as I was the first year, but the current was MUCH faster.

I did "stop" a few times to take everything in and just catch my breath bit...and then 1/2 way (the buoys change color from yellow to orange) I had a complete brain fart and hit the "lap" button on my watch so I would have a "split time" to compare front to back half.....DOH...the lap button told my triathlon watch I was in T1!! So I quickly hit STOP....and then I realized after a few more yards that the watch would autosave before long so I just hit resume and knew my data would be completely wrong for the swim and T1... JEEZE. But all that helped to take my mind off the swimming! Before I realized it I was at Ross's Landing. I knew there were 11 big upright things but I was moving fast enough I didn't even care to count!

My goggles have a timer function...but because I had taken "rest" breaks it didn't keep a solid time. That combined with my brain fart watch issue I had NO IDEA what my time was. All I knew when I got out of the water was that I felt FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!!! I got out whooping! and started running. I was surprised Dwayne wasn't there but I saw him as I was running up the little hill--whooping the whole time. I asked someone "what time of day is it?" because I knew I got in at 8:05....they said "9" about the time Dwayne yelled "YOU WERE UNDER AN HOUR!!" That made me WHOOP even louder!!!! (I heard him say "can you imagine being married to THAT?!")

Swim time was 56:15 (it was 1:10:07 in 2015!).

I ran through the bags calling out my number so a volunteer could grab my bag for me...and ran into transition. I put on my helmet and stuffed my glasses in my top. I ran barefoot to my bike, and realized I was VERY far behind most everyone! SO MANY BIKES were already gone!! That's okay...I knew my swim would be "slow"...and it was still under an hour! I threw my shoes on, grabbed the bike off the rack and ran out... I knew I "should" have put on sunscreen but I didn't want to take time to dry off and it wouldn't stick to wet skin. Last time they had people putting it on us, they weren't there this time.

T1 time 6:34 (it was 7:05 last time...I didn't know I already had about a 15 minute head start from my "perfect day in 2015!!)

BIKE

As I started riding I realized my nutrition plan was probably NOT the best. I had ordered a custom blend from Infinite based on all the data I had gathered about myself (this is already too long so I won't go into this here)...but on my last long ride I realized I had a little too much protein in it. I meant to change it but they shipped the next bag before I did so I just went with it anyway. Well...it was also MUCH cooler race day than it had been which would mean I had too many electrolytes as well. I SHOULD HAVE "called an audible" and just went with the Gatorade Endurance on the course. I had several long rides with that before I switched to Infinite. But it didn't have the calories I really wanted so I decided to stick with my plan. The whole first loop it seemed like a SOLID plan....drink 1 serving of Infinite every 15 miles which should have been every hour and should have coincided with aid stations.

That first loop was glorious. I knew I wasn't going as fast as I did last time but I was much faster than I had been in training.

This is mainly because, not to brag...but...I KNOW how to use my gears to take advantage of rolling hills. I passed SO MANY PEOPLE who would coast down the hill and then wait until they started going up before they started peddling again...and then they would grind away in a hard gear up the next hill. What you want to do is PEDAL down the hill gaining "free" speed (less effort for watts and momentum)...pedal through the bottom of the hill and shift into an easier gear to go up the next hill with lower effort...pedal over the top and get in a harder gear to do it all over again.

I can't express how much I LOVE that course. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I got to see Dwayne and the friend who came with us at the "usual" spot....I "easily" got up the worst hill on the course before it turns to head back up...and then the GLORIOUSLY FAST ROLLERS....BEAUTIFUL countryside...I saw Dwayne and my friend again...and then my local friends were in their hometown of Chickamauga SCREAMING for me as I whizzed by!! I felt like a million bucks! I did forget how slow it is coming out of Chickamauga...but I almost didn't even care I was so happy. And then it's like a switch flipped. My stomach turned inside out. I NEEDED to throw up but couldn't. I wanted to but couldn't. I tried to go to the bathroom three times...every time I would get passed by all those people I had passed earlier.

I have never wanted to quit a race that bad in my life! I saw Dwayne and my friend and they cheered and I whooped but really I wanted to pull over and tell them I was done.

But I kept thinking about the roll down. I had no idea how many old ladies were out there with me. How many of them were struggling? How many slots out of that 60 would be for my age group? I am not a quitter....even if I'm slow. So I kept going. I got back up the one "bad" hill, but not even the fastest part of the course could cheer me up. Oh, I forgot to mention, the leaders passed me at mile 60! Then I got to the "regular spot" where I should have seen my people but they weren't there. I started telling myself I would quit at Chickamauga if my other friends were there.

But what about the roll down??? And I'm not a quitter even if I'm slow.

When I got back to Chickamauga I knew it would be dead quiet. Special needs is on the first loop...and I was so far behind everyone there were only a few spectators....and then I saw my people!! They were cheering and screaming... I couldn't quit. They were working HARD to cheer me on!! And by that point I only had 16 miles...just bit over an hour. 4 X 15 minutes.... 6 x 10 minutes... 12 X 5 minutes...15 X 4 minutes....give or take so I kept peddling and tried to go to the bathroom one more time...and heard what sounded like a hundred people pass me.

As I was riding back into town I was asking myself WHY...why didn't I just quit and go to dinner. I didn't WANT to run a marathon. No one would care if I quit.

Except me, I knew I'd regret it...and JUST MAYBE I could get a roll down slot. There were VERY FEW women at the race. When I got off the time I felt completely defeated and DONE. But I kept moving forward. Dwayne videoed the WHOLE THING. I'm so glad he did. I think I'll remember that feeling the rest of my life....and I will also remember everything that was about to happen...

Bike time was 7:50:38 (last time it was 6:30:03...so much for that head start...).

I got my bag and plodded into T2. And a WONDERFUL angel from Heaven flittered over to help me. She emptied my bag and started asking me what I needed....and I just stared at her. She said "do you want me to tell you what you need?" which made me laugh. I think her name was Rae. I loved her! Before the race I got 2 Starbucks gift card to put in my T1 and T2 bags. I didn't have any help in T1 but I was so glad to have that card to give her for her help! She REALLY changed the rest of my day!! I got my socks and shoes on, grabbed of my Oliver Farms hat (my friend's parents own this farm...her dad passed earlier this year and her mom is kicking cancer's butt right now...and she is currently in KONA about to race the World Championship there! She's a 13 time Ironman, about to be 14, I hoped that hat would give me extra juju!) and my headlamp and headed out....

T2 time 7:15 (last time was 4:59...all things considered I'm happy with that)

RUN

As I headed out I saw Dwayne and I handed him my head lamp. I knew I was going to be out at night. I didn't use one last time but I felt like I would be much slower so I wanted it. We had a conversation earlier that I would keep it in my bag and carry it because I did NOT want him to hand me anything because that would DQ me for getting outside assistance...and "what if I were to actually get a roll down slot!?" But in the moment I handed it to him I didn't care. I didn't want to carry it and I felt like my chances at that point were close to zero so he might as well hold it and give it to me later....I told him Ironman is DUMB (which he also go on video)...and I started running.

I had the most solid nutrition plan I've had for the run on any long distance tri...water and Gatorde Endurance at every aid station, except every 3rd mile I would take a Gu or Maurten gel with water...until mile 20 and then it would be Red Bull every mile. I decided I would stick with this plan even though my stomach was NOT happy.

I had forgotten just how long you have to run along the highway. It feels like 84,943.7 miles and it's SOUL SUCKING. I tried to shuffle my feet but I really didn't feel good. But I "KNEW" I had "plenty" of time to finish. I kept working out the math but I kept coming up with the understanding that I had about 7 hours to finish the marathon. I KNEW I could do that. But what about that roll down...every time I thought about it I would run. My running paces were 9:15-10:00 but I was walking a fair amount until I made the turn to get on the riverwalk. About mile 5 I stopped at a port-o-potty which helped a bit. When I came out my watch went dead.

At that moment I knew I'd have to DO MY VERY BEST (this my favorite line from Facing the Giants) because I wasn't going to know how I was doing time-wise. I had to make hay while the sun was shining. So I picked it up.

All of a sudden Dwayne came up in a panic "ARE YOU OKAY?!" He was so frantic it scared me. I had forgotten that my watch has LTE on it so he was live tracking me even though I didn't have my phone! When my watch died it showed that I stopped it...and then I had not crossed the next mat when the algorithm expected me to be there since I stopped in the potty. He had actually scared a race official into coming to search for me!! I told him about my stomach but that I was feeling MUCH better now that I was off that dumb bike! (Also on video.) But I said this as I ran away from him. As I ran about 79.8% of the time I was dreaming about getting a roll down slot.

The World Championship race used to be in Kona. Both men and women would race all on the same day together. Pre-Covid they were trying to get more women at the race so there were more slots for women but you basically had to get 1st or 2nd in your age group to get one. Last year they had so many participants at Kona (trying to play catch up from the Covid canceled years) that they split the 2 races-men's and women's....and the Island just couldn't handle that volume. So they decided to make Nice, France an additional WC race...with the men racing there this year and the women next year. (Women in Kona this year, men next year.) So they are filling the race in Nice with women only. There are FAR fewer total women racing so they have A LOT more slots per race to give. What if I somehow managed to get one of those slots??

I running more...allowing myself to walk "trash can to trash can" (something Coach Martha taught me for IMLT)...run every mile but walk the aid stations. I also walked "uphills". But when I got out to the North Shore -which is very hilly I knew I couldn't walk EVERY hill so I just did a run/walk by feel.

I really forgot A LOT of that run course from when I did it in 2015. Most of it seemed brand new to me. No doubt I was already in cognitive decline during that race. Although I had not trained as hard as I did in 2015, I had done pretty much every long run on a very hilly course to prepare so I kept doing MY VERY BEST. And I stuck to my nutrition plan. When I got back across the pedestrian bridge I expected to see Dwayne. It was getting dark. I needed my head lamp. The highway was fine, but the River Walk was going to be VERY dark. I told myself I had to just run close to people who had headlamps but 90% of the people were walking so I was passing most people with very few passing me. I was right, it was pretty dark, but I realized it wasn't TOO dark.

I didn't see him until I came off the River Walk, just before what I call the "stinger hill"-it's short and fairly steep. And when I asked him for my lamp he said he didn't realize I would want it because I had told him not to give it to me!! DOH! Oh well...at that point I only had about 6 miles to go!

Not only was he there with the friend who came with us, but my "local" friends came out and brought one of their dogs!! That was SUCH a treat!! But I had to potty again...and the potties were RIPE by then. One friend said "that will be your motivation to get out fast!" She was right...I got out and started running again.... and they headed for the finish line as I headed back over the bridge to the North Shore. I basically put my blinders on and ran every step I felt like I could....when I got to the top of the pedestrian bridge coming back I told myself NO MORE WALKING....and tried to run as hard as I felt like I could....

When I got to the finish chute I could hear my friends SCREAMING for me but I was so very focused on trying to eek out the last little bit of effort I had left to get to that finish line that I didn't stop to high five or anything. There was a person who had their hand out right before I crossed the line so I high fived him (her? I don't even know!)...and I crossed the line feeling AMAZING!!! I had NO idea what my time was but I knew I felt incredible and I felt like it had to be about 15 hours which was better than my first one. Another friend from Huntsville who was volunteering gave me my medal, finisher hat and shirt. I got a picture and then started looking for my people.

As we were heading to the car Dwayne said something about my finish time being so good...and said it was 14:3?....I basically accused him of making it up...so he pulled out his phone to show me my time

Run time was 5:35:45 (2015 was 4:59:46)

Total time was 14:36:24, 28/46 in my age group. Ironically I came in 28th last time too (but out of 144 last time!)

I woke up the next morning early and told Dwayne I wanted a finisher jacket and shirt so we went down to get it. The breakfast was going to be at like 9 with roll down after awards. I told him and my friend "it will be like winning the lottery because it's like .00001% chance I'll get a slot, but it's NOT ZERO so I want to be there JUST IN CASE."

The way roll-down works is that they have so many slots (60), and they are divided up based on the nnumber of participants inn each age group. I knew my group had 46 women but no idea how many slots we'd have.

They did awards and all 1-5 in my group were there to get their award....and I guessed they'd take their slots. She started calling slots for women...65-69 age group 2 slots.... 60-64 3 slots (not everyone took one so that slot rolled to the 40-44 group) 55-59 5 slots...and then my turn 50-54...ELEVEN slots. I started counting down as Dwayne read names down the list....but I lost track....3 names to go...someone took one...2 names to go...no answer...1 name before mine-she took it...I thought that was the last one-I was holding my breath and she called "Dana...." She had wanted you to say "Oui Oui" if you wanted your slot but I jumped out of my chair screaming....as if I had won the lottery! NO ONE could mistake that I was absolutely taking my WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROLL DOWN SLOT!!! Thankfully I had prepared Dwayne for the cost and that it had to be paid right then!!!

I'm going to the IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN NICE FRANCE next year 9/22!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLY CRAP!! I'm still in shock!!

Thanks for sticking around to hear the whole thing...I bet you feel like you did an Ironman now don't you!!??

I'm hoping to document all my training as I go...it's already started with a swim today....and I'm getting a new bike this week!!!! (Thanks to my husband who is just as excited for me as I am!!!)

See-Saw on a Cliff

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sat, 27 May 2023 13:07:00 +0000

When a person is training for a tough event (any event that is tough for that person...it might be walking a mile without stopping...whatever is outside what the can currently do)...the usual way to train is to "overreach" and then recover, reaching just a bit further each time until the goal is met.

But, when that person has an autoimmune issue (or maybe some other chronic condition they are working around), that person has to be careful not to go too far in the "overreach" phase of training. Because going too far can set off a flare (or reoccurrence of the injury).

My friend "Daisy" has an autoimmune condition that had been fairly stable for long enough she decided to train for a local 13.1 race recently. She asked me for my thoughts. I told her she was going to need to adjust her expectations for her performance and she was going to have to be diligent in listening to her body. She worked her way up to a 10 mile long run and the wheels fell completely off. She went into one of the worst flares she's experienced. She THOUGHT she was listening to her body...and...she didn't hear the flare coming.

She is understandably VERY concerned about me training for IMChoo.

I have been feeling pretty strong lately.

BUT

My data is giving me a very different picture than my feelings. My data is telling me I have to slow down.

this is what it should look like

Here's the thing...training effect builds up over time. It's cumulative. Fatigue is cumulative. Fitness is cumulative. The "trick" is to slowly build fitness without going too high with fatigue. Usually you want to have 2-4 building weeks and then a recovery week. Within the week you want to have building and recovery cycles as well. It's like a seesaw. But for someone with an autoimmune condition it's more like being on a seesaw with one side hanging over a cliff!

The truth is I really do not precisely know what caused my brain disease. The most likely answer is that in the summer of 2015 I was coaching about 12 adult athletes, I had about a team of about 20ish kids, I directed a kids triathlon and I was training pretty hard for IMChoo. I raced hard in September and then I let my diet fall completely apart. I think the embers were smoldering with the overload from all the mental, emotional, and physical stress I was under and my post-race diet lit a match. The doctors say there's just no way to know what caused it to happen, and, unfortunately, no way to know if it will happen again.

Sometimes I think I'm overly afraid. I haven't had a (lasting) flare in over 2 years. I honestly give most credit Juice Plus. Getting the nutrition from 30 fruits and veggies every day does wonders for the body! I'm also very careful with stress these days. Contrary to what many people think, I work hard to NOT work too hard. I'm aware I workout more than the average American. But we all know the average American doesn't workout at all...when you factor in the fact that I'm pretty darn close to being a menopausal woman that number goes down even more.

I try to do all the right things... I don't typically have ANY caffeine, but "never" after noon. I try to eat "right" most of the time. I workout what I feel is an appropriate amount*. I drink about a half gallon of water every day. The one thing I really NEED to get better on is my sleep hygiene. I have this little routine that I NEED to change. We have been watching TV until about 8 or 8:30, then I get ready for bed, and play 5 games on my phone in bed before I shut it down and fall asleep. It's such an OCD routine that when I've tried to change it I lay awake for over an hour almost feeling anxious becuase I haven't done the routine! That NEEDS to change. I think the main reason I haven't worked harder to change it is because I don't believe it will make a difference in my sleep quality. But I won't know unless I try.

*Let's come back to what I consider to be an "appropriate amount" of working out.

If I'm 100% honest, maybe I workout "too much"...but this is where it gets tough. I only feel that way when I compare myself to those around me. But I am training FAR LESS than I "should" be at this point in time with IMChoo coming up in September. I "should" be swimming (I'm not swimming right now because there's a theory that chlorine impacts the thyroid and I KNOW my thyroid is low right now), I should be running a lot more (I'm not because that's the hardest type of workout for me to recover from), and I should be riding my actual bike more (I don't because my husband is TERRIFIED for me to ride on the roads, and I'm exhausted in the evening so I don't want to go back out to ride on the Arsenal, and I HATE the trainer...and it's hard to put that bike on and off the trainer so I can ride on the weekend).

Right now my week looks like this:

Monday: Spin, Hotworx, Teach Aqua Fitness (it's a bit like a step aerobics class for me)

Tuesday: Strength training, hotworx (next week I'm adding in a run before strength)

Wednesday: Aqua Fitness, Spin, Spin

Thursday: Strength training, hotworx (next week I'm adding in a run before strength)

Friday: Aqua Fitness, Hotworx (this is usually my easiest day)

Saturday: Long ride or run

Sunday: Long ride or run

But any day I feel like I need it I back off and skip something. I hardly went to Hotworx at all this week and tomorrow will be a rest day because Monday is my fourteenth straight year to run the Cotton Row 10K!!

The thing about being on a see-saw on the edge of a cliff is to make darn sure what you're balancing with on the other side is just exactly the right amount! I certainly don't want to fall off into the abyss...but I also don't want to miss out on doing what I love...I don't want to be so afraid of what might happen that I miss out on what is possible.

Thanks for sticking around. I'm excited to see what will happen next!

Three Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 20:05:00 +0000

My first day at Iron Tribe this year was Jan 3rd. Dwayne and I had planned a vacation from the 8th to the 14th so I knew I would have to either skip workout or do them on my own somehow. I got "lucky" because the local YMCA where we went had an EXCELLENT gym that had pretty much all the equipment I needed for workout 1. (Side note: I go two days a week and have had 2 different workouts that have progressed each week in difficulty.) I planned to do workout 2 at home.

Week one I was super sore so I was nervous to do week two while on vacation! But I knew what I had to do...and I was super proud that I did it. I really intended to swim while we were gone too, but the pool was outdoors and it was too cold for me in the mornings...and we were there for VACATION so going in the afternoon was HIGHLY inconvenient!

I did (most of) workout 2 at home...there was one thing I didn't have the right equipment for.....

When I went back this week I noticed improvement! YAY! But of course that means Coach Ken will have all new workouts for me next week.

This week I also got back in the pool....I won't declare victory yet since it's only been once. I'm actually truly HATING to swim now. I ~~feel~~ AM SO SLOW. Slower than I have ever been. And I don't fully understand why. Yes, being out of the water is huge...but I can't help but think there's more to it than just that. I'm really hoping strength training and consistent pool time will turn the barge around!

I also ran TWICE this week. Well, walk-ran. Now I need to work in getting back on the trainer and I'll be in full on Ironman training mode!

I'm seriously looking forward to long training. When I was training for IMChoo I would go teach spin at the Y at 5:30am and then get on my bike from the Y after class. I would ride 6-8 hours for my longest rides. I absolutely LOVED it. I had a couple of gas stations I would stop at to get refills on water and buy a snack but mostly I carried everything I needed. (And, no, I didn't listen to anything other than my own thoughts.) Then the next day I'd go out for my long runs, usually with Dwayne. He picked the hilliest routes he could find and then force me to keep running with NO WALK BREAKS. It was just the best time! I miss it and I'm just so glad to be working toward being able to do that again.

And, yes, I'm aware that kind of thinking is not "normal"....unless you are within the Ironman/endurance athlete bubble. I'm excited to be moving back toward that bubble.

I just have to ALSO make sure I'm actively recovering in addition to actively training!

34 weeks and counting until RACE DAY!

New Year, Same Me...but not for long

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 20:40:00 +0000

I signed up for IM Choo 23 and decided I would TRAIN for it... and then all my excuses started popping up...I'm SO BUSY. I'm SCARED of a brain disease relapse (this doesn't feel like an excuse, this feels VERY real), I'm SORE, I need to focus on teaching and coaching and race directing...the list goes on...

I basically stopped training the week before Thanksgiving....Okay, if I'm being really honest, I wasn't really training before then either. I was doing good to get 2 swims in a week, no running and the only biking has been when I teach Spin. But I did start going to Hotworx...and I LOVE it. REALLY LOVE IT!

But Hotworx doesn't really get me to the start line of IMChoo ready and prepared.

Then after the marathon was over (the one Dwayne and I direct) I got sick for a week. And then there was Christmas and New Years....

I kept telling myself I have plenty of time to get started. The race is in September. But I KNOW I NEED to at least be swimming. But swimming is SO FREAKING HARD.

Then Blair told me about an Iron Tribe Prime program for triathletes he wanted to test out with me as one of his guinea pigs. The idea terrified me but I agreed, with the plan to start the first week in January.

In case you missed it...that was this week. (Insert picture of me at Iron Tribe on Tuesday)

Yes, I did start the program. Yes, it is "hard"...but somehow also (ridiculously) simple sounding on paper.

I "know" in my coach brain that swimming is the perfect adjunct to strength training, but my athlete brain said "NO WAY" this week.

And then I got a message from Coach Tom. I knew it was coming I just didn't know when. It's like when you are watching a scary movie and you KNOW the monster is going to jump out any second...but it doesn't so you exhale and relax...and then BAM there it is!

He called me out.

He did it gently. And he was right to do it...but I won't lie...I called him some names in the last 24 hours. (Insert the pictures of me telling Dwayne that thanks to stupid Tom I'm going to swim today)

But I also got my butt to the pool this morning for an unplanned swim that I needed. (Insert photo of me telling Tom I hate him)

It SUCKED.

We are going out of town next week....so I got on GoogleMaps and MIRACULOUSLY found a YMCA with like the most amazing pool of any YMCA EVER just FIVE MINUTES from our hotel.

FIVE MINUTES.

That sucks. It means there's no excuse for me to not swim this week.

UGH.

This morning was funny...I did NOT want to get in the water. I did NOT want to swim. But when I started my music, song number one was "I'm Ready". I had to laugh. Then about the time I started thinking "I'm going to die right here in the pool"..."I Will Survive" came on. Then about the time I started thinking "This whole thing is dumb. I'm old and I've already done two full IMs...why do I care about doing another one?" the song that will forever be my IMLT13 song, "Anything Can Happen" came on. That song was playing the first moment I stepped into Lake Tahoe's Ironman village. I found myself in awe of how far I had come to get there. There's a part of the song that says "I'll give you everything you need but I don't think I need you"...that part always makes me think of my excuses and inner critic. I give them fuel. I give them life. I give them space in my head....but I do NOT NEED THEM. They are like cement blocks on my feet pulling me into the depths of agony and doubt. The end of the song has this part that says "I know it's going to be" several times then "OVER...but I don't think I need you". When I hear this song during a training session I always imagine the finish line. The training and the race will be over...it will come to an end one way or another.... and I think to myself "I don't need that critical voice, or the excuses I make, to get there".

But they just keep coming.

My why: I am strong. I "believe" there's a strong athlete inside of me. I believe she has always been there. But she was never given space when I was a kid. She was squashed under doubt and fear, and some circumstances out of my control that I won't go into here. I hit young adulthood believing I was simply incapable. But God kept telling me I am strong because He made me strong. Strong-minded, strong-willed AND strong in body. But to live out that strength really does take work. It takes commitment. It takes consistency and effort.

I'm telling you--whoever may read this--I am committing to training this year. I'm committing to putting in the honest work. I'm committed to listening to my body with a very honest ear.

I can't promise that fears won't win the battle every now and then. I can't promise that the critical voice will be squashed (it sure as heck wasn't today after my swim today....Dwayne had to hear the self-hatred spewing out of my mouth like old faithful, and he did his very best to cap the geyser). But I can promise that I will face these challenges head-on and I will keep moving forward.

That is Ironman mentality.

But, there is a BIG difference between "finishing" and "competing" an Ironman.

I intend to compete. Against myself. Against my excuses. Against my self-critic (the hag in my head that lives like a non-rent-paying squatting bed of roaches!). I will run the race so as to win the prize.

Because God made gives me strength. Every. Single. Day.

I hope anyone who reads this will be willing to keep me accountable. Feel free to ask me how training is going. Feel free to ask me if I'm honestly listening to my body or if I'm listening to the excuses or the self-critic.

It's going to be an interesting year.

Rolling hills are NOT all created alike...

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 21:37:00 +0000

As I mentioned previously, I really expected the "rolling hills" of Memphis to be like the "rolling hills" of Chattanooga...

They. Were. NOT.

The rolling hills of Chattanooga are LOVELY...they climb a tiny bit, they descend easily and then immediately roll up the next hill...you get momentum from one hill to the next that carries you most of the way up the next hill. It really doesn't feel like a lot of climbing...except for the one hill on Andrews...that's a big climb.

When I did the Chatty 70.3 I was NOT trained. I had not ridden my real bike more than maybe 20 MILES leading up to race day! (Don't do that...it was DUMB.) I wasn't teaching spin more often back then. I definitely wasn't running much then. All that to say I know I wasn't just in better shape then...in fact I was in better shape this year (for sure).

The morning of the race it was cool outside. I talked with a fellow racer as we were setting up who asked my thoughts on the temperature.....I said I was giving myself options with both a jacket and arm warmers at my transition spot.

I actually got a little hot in my wetsuit during the swim (probably because I kept stopping!) so when I got to transition I decided I didn't need anything extra. I simply got my helmet, bike shoes and sunglasses on, grabbed my bike and headed out. As I started riding I thought I might have made a mistake because it was a tad chilly, but I just knew I would warm up quickly...and I was right.

As I think back on the bike course (now that it's been three LONG weeks since the race...) the things that really stand out to me are the sheer beauty of the course--it was SPECTACULAR! I thought Chatty 70.3 was a pretty course, but Memphis is even prettier! The hills were NOT wonderfully rolling ... they were hills that made me work just a bit to get up (but NOTHING major at all)...and then the downs were mostly slopes that lead to just enough flat road that zapped all the momentum out...which meant more work to get up the next incline!

And then there was the road surface. It feels like it was mostly chip-seal (even though it really wasn't). The hardest part about that was that I was relying on fluid nutrition from my aero bullet bottle. It's HARD to drink from an aero bullet when the road surface is so bumpy!

For bike fuel, I had made up a very concentrated bottle of Tailwind (along with a regular bottle of it in the aero bottle to start). The plan was to drink the aero bottle in an hour, then squirt out 1/4 of the concentrated bottle every hour after that, mixing with water I got from aid stations. Thankfully it wasn't too hot early on so I didn't really need much extra water beyond that.

That worked the first 2 hours...but the road surface being so bumpy (combined with my own fears) really thwarted those plans. So much so that I really got behind on fuel. I think I ended up taking in about 2/3 of what I had intended. And, it started getting VERY HOT toward the end of the bike.

My power plan was to keep my watts right around 115-120. I surprised myself and was just a tad over that. Not so much that I blew up my legs for the run, but enough that I felt like I had given about what I had to give!

When I got off the bike I asked the volunteer if she wanted to buy a bike! The person behind me said "I'll take it if you are giving it away for free!" I laughed and said I might change my mind after the run!

The aid stations seemed to be well spaced and well worked but just a tiny bit cramped. I only stopped once-for a VERY much-needed potty break.

When I finised the swim I was in 44th place in my age group (out of 71)...when I got off the bike I had moved up to 36th. (I moved up 58 places, from 287 to 229, for all females, and I moved up 88 spots, from 946 to 858, overall. I knew I had passed quite a few people but I also know I was passed by quite a few. And, as always, I played leap frog (without drafting) with a few as well.

If I hadn't stopped so much on the swim who knows how that might have shaken out...

Next up...the run...

"You Never Have to Swim Again"

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sun, 09 Oct 2022 01:55:00 +0000

I had been nervous for a while about the swim at the Memphis 70.3.

I don't really know why but my swim has been the last thing to "come back" since the brain disease/treatment. I don't know why but when I have tried to swim I just feel like I can't breathe. I can't relax. And nothing really seems to have helped...well, except swimming with fins! LOL

I started swimming regularly in April this year....usually three times a week. I started conservatively at about 1000 yards and then ramped up...but most of each swim session was with fins and a lot of each session was drills.

How much I've been swimming the last 6 months...

Just before the Huntsville Sprint Tri I swam my first straight 400 yards without fins. I did that about 3 times before race day. I was VERY shocked and pleased that I did "okay" at the race. (9:16 for 400 is not great by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a congested swim and I didn't stop to hang on to the wall so I counted it as a win!)

Not only did I feel like I couldn't swim, swimming was also WIPING me OUT more than running or biking.

My last two 70.3 swims were Chattanooga in 2021 (downstream, point to point) and Augusta 2017 (FAST downstream, point to point). The Memphis swim was in a small lake. The good thing about the swim is no current...the bad thing is no current!

But going in I reasoned that all I really had to do was keep moving forward. With a 70 minute cutoff time, that is a 3:18 pace. Surely I could manage that.

I've never watched the weather hoping for a wetsuit swim. Ever. Until this year. Even though I only practiced twice, and even though the suit chafes my neck a little, I hoped and prayed for the race to be wetsuit legal. I wasn't going to wear it if it was optional because I think it gets too hot if the water isn't cold enough to be wetsuit legal. (Although I SERIOUSLY considered wearing my floaty pants if it was wetsuit optional...)

I was very happy to find out the water cooled down the week of the race to make it wetsuit legal!

I walked down to the swim start with my friends...two of them seeded much faster than Coach R and I did. We talked about how our swims had really tanked in recent years and we lamented over the loss...and we realized we were both signed up for Coach Tom's "swim school", hoping it would help.

The closer we got to getting the water the more nervous I got. At one point I "jokingly" said "Nope, I changed my mind...I don't want to do this..." (Sure, I was "just joking"...sure...sure I was.) We inched closer and closer and all I could think was "okay, finish this and you never have to swim again...but you have to finish this swim...just keep moving forward and finish this swim..." I told Coach R if I finished in under an hour I would be happy...and then revised that and said if I finished in less than the cutoff I would be happy...

Before I knew it, it was time for me to walk in that water. It was warmer than the air temp which was nice. It was MURKY...REALLY REALLY MURKY. But I expected that because people had been talking about it on the Facebook page. I immediately moved out of the way to gather my wits and try to relax.

"You never have to swim again....but you have to swim now...you have to finish this swim..."

As I slowly started moving forward telling myself to "JUST RELAX FOR CRYING OUT LOUD" I saw a woman treading water...she looked panicked a little bit. I asked if she was okay. She said the water was just so cold she couldn't breathe. I encouraged her to focus on her exhale and to relax...really I was talking to myself-she just happened to be there to hear it!

After I made sure she was fine I started telling myself to just swim buoy to buoy. At the briefing they said they were about 100 yards apart. So I made a deal with myself...swim 100 yards then take a breather.

That didn't happen...it was more like swim 25 yards, take a breather, swim 5 strokes, take a breather, swim 50 yards, take a breather.

I am not kidding when I say I stopped every few yards!

SO MANY kayakers asked if I was okay. I would just give a thumbs-up and then start swimming again.

It was only about 200 yards in a guy just ahead of me quit and took a ride to the shore on a medical boat....

"You never have to swim again, but you have to keep swimming NOW...you HAVE TO FINISH THIS SWIM."

There was a fog on the lake much like there was when I did IM Lake Tahoe (but the water, and the air, was MUCH warmer). It made seeing the next buoy a little challenging. The beauty of that was that I certainly couldn't see PAST the very next buoy so I really couldn't tell how much farther the turn was. When I got to the different colored buoy I was thinking that meant it was 1/2 way....I took a peek at my watch and saw "45"..."well, crap...if that is 1/2 way I'll NEVER finish in 70 minutes"

"You never have to swim again, but YOU CAN NOT QUIT....PERIOD..."

I realized if I missed the cutoff I wouldn't be pulled off the course because there were TONS of people behind me...I would "just" get a DQ for the race...but I'd be able to get on the bike and would be able to finish the race, cross the finish line and get a medal....so I stopped looking at my watch and I stopped trying to do the math of how far I had to go before I could stop swimming FOREVER...because I was sure I was never going to swim EVER again AS LONG AS I LIVE...

I FINALLY made it to the turn buoy...and then the next turn buoy.....and then just beyond that was the only right-hand turn on the course...and BAM....right into the sun. I knew it was coming but I wasn't fully prepared for the blinding light searing my eyeballs!

Speaking of the sun...I got SO HOT I briefly considered taking my wetsuit off and giving it to a kayaker....but I realized that might be only thing keeping me on top of the water....

Let me take a step back here.....usually in open water swims I try to find someone who is going about my speed and someone who is sighting well and I draft off them. It's perfectly legal to draft on the swim...but it's a little risky if the person isn't sighting well. That was IMPOSSIBLE in this race because it was IMPOSSIBLE to see feet in front of me...I couldn't even see my hand in front of me!

When we turned into the sun I realized there was someone on my right side who seemed to be sighting well, so I tried to just stay with her...which worked for maybe 20 yards...

(No idea what the blip to the shore is...probably my watch picking up on my wishful thinking!)

Thankfully it didn't take long to get to the ramp...and I was done swimming FOREVER and EVER....

Just after I got out of the water I clicked stop on my watch and saw "53:??"....and then I heard Dwayne's voice yelling my name saying "YOU MADE IT"! I knew some of my other friends/family were there but he was the only face I really locked onto...and I said in all sincerity "I DIDN'T DIE!"

I mean I wasn't REALLY afraid I would die...but I have NEVER been so happy to be out of the water.

Then I ran to transition to get on the bike...

Spoiler alert...I did swim again... I am submitting myself to Coach Tom's tutelage hoping it will help my swim improve. I know it's going to work...there is something almost magical about someone else programming workouts for you. His workouts are similar to what I've done before (CSS swimming) but he has added snorkel swimming which I've never done before. It's only been four sessions but I think I like it.

It's a really good thing I'm liking it because the day after Memphis I registered for IMChoo 144.6 next September! I guess I will actually HAVE TO swim more...

Stay tuned for the bike and run recaps...

The Lead Up...

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:51:00 +0000

Sometime prior to the race I rented a house for friends, family and us to stay in and I lined up the dog sitter. I didn't pay attention to the fact that October 1st (race day) was a Saturday (instead of Sunday). I was thinking we could leave early evening Friday, check in for the race on Saturday, race on Sunday, hang out on Monday then go home Tuesday. It wasn't until I saw a post on the Memphis 70.3 page saying check in was closing at 4 on Friday that I was jarred into reality! I'm "sure" I would have realized it at some point, but maybe not! The main thing that had to change was when the dog sitter was getting to the house, so we could leave earlier.

Dwayne and I ended up driving separately because my brother-in-law was flying into Memphis (from a work trip to Arizonan) and needed to drive from Memphis home. We ended up talking on the phone most of the way there. It reminded me of when we were dating. We talked on the phone A LOT...especially after he would leave my house (or I would leave his) to go home.

Dwayne drove to pick up by BIL while I drove to Shelby Farms to Ironman Village. After finding a place to park (NOT in a "DO NOT PARK" spot as many people did) I headed over to check in. On the way over I ran into Rick-a local triathlon legend, coach, and friend. Just as I got to the bike rack outside of check in I ran into the crew I run with! One was there to do the whole thing (just 2 weeks after a PR performance at IM Maryland), three others were doing the relay. It was good because checking in together meant we got to rack our bikes together. We shopped a bit (HOLY MOLY-$78 for a Finisher shirt!? Yes, it was LuLu, but $78?! No thanks!) and then we headed over to bike check-in. When we left there we went over to the swim start...that's when I started to doubt that I had made a sound decision in signing up for this race. The swim looked LONG. Like REALLY REALLY REALLY LONG. It was set to be in a little lake with different in and out points.

I didn't have a lot of time to panic because we had to get over to the athlete briefing.

At the briefing they asked how many had been doing IM for 10 years or more and I realized that was ME!! I did my first 70.3 (NOLA) in the spring of 2012....well the swim was canceled for that race so it ended up being a 67.1 duathlon instead, but it counts. It's crazy to think it's been that long!

When the briefing was over we headed over to the house to meet up with friends that came into town to cheer me on! We got settled in just a bit and then headed to dinner. Somewhat by "chance" we met up with the other crew (I say "somewhat" because I knew they were headed to that same location-but there were multiple places to choose from at that location...); we ended up eating with them which was nice.

Then it was time to get all my stuff lined up for the next day.

I had planned to wear my favorite tri kit but looking at the weather I thought it might be cold at the start of the bike so I also packed a jacket and arm warmers. I packed both my floaty pants and my sleeveless wetsuit. (NO idea why I thought I would opt for the floaty pants over the wetsuit, but Friday night as I was getting ready it seemed like a perfectly reasonable option!)

For my bike nutrition, I decided to use Tailwind. I made up one bottle of caffeinated that I would put in my aero bar bullet for the first hour. Then I made up a concentrated bottle with non-caffeinated for an additional 3 hours (just in case I had an issue on the bike). The plan was to have a bottle of water, and the concentrated bottle on the wing behind my seat with the aero bottle between my bars. I would drink the aero bottle in an hour, and squeeze out 1/3 of the concentrated bottle with a bottle of water in my aero bottle for each hour after that (getting additional water bottles on the course). That could have worked...(more on that later.)

I got everything else packed up-race issued swim cap, goggles, bike helmet, bike shoes, running shoes, socks, race belt with my bib attached, sunglasses, Body Glide, Skin Sake, Butt Butter, Desitin (in case of chafing)...and then I remembered that I had forgotten sunscreen! No worries...they ALWAYS have sunscreen at races... And I put my watch on the charger. I got to bed around 9 which would have been fine, if I had stayed asleep...I didn't! I woke up about 12:30 for a couple of hours...I did eventually go back to sleep just in time to wake up!

I had my pre-race oatmeal (brown sugar and cinnamon, with some protein powder, blueberries, and trail mix (walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and cranberries). Before I knew it, it was time to head out...

We had to park about a mile (or more) away from transition but it was an easy walk over with the other thousands of triathletes. I got my tires pumped, my aero bottle filled and attached, my other bottles in place, and then got my spot all set up....bike shoes, sunglasses, helmet, running shoes, jacket and arm warmers (just in case), Butt Butter, and race bib... then I gathered my other stuff and headed to find a toilet.

It was a strange thing-they had A LOT of toilets in transition but they were all "closed" until after the start of the race. I get that they wanted to make sure we had "clean" toilets for the run, but the more important time to have ALL the toilets open was pre-race! It ended up being a good thing because I found a real bathroom that didn't take any time at all to get in....and it was a VERY good thing I had a real toilet...

Before I knew it, it was time to don my wetsuit and head over to the swim start...

Why Did I Even Sign Up?

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 21:13:00 +0000

Back when I did IMLT in 2013 I had a shoulder injury. I knew after that race I would have to have something done to fix it but I didn't know what that might be. I had spent the year of training trying to figure out what was wrong. I had been to SO MANY doctors, physical therapists, massage therapists, a chiropractor and wound up at the pain clinic getting injections to fight the pain. After the second visit there I decided that was NOT the place I wanted to be...

After the race was over I went down to Andrew's Sports Medicine in Birmingham and started at square one with them...initial consultation, PT, return visit, more PT...and then when I went for a guided injection they FINALLY found that I had a completely shredded biceps tendon. A very short time later they removed it completely! (There are 2 biceps tendons-a long and a short head...I'm 99% sure it was the long head they removed.) Rehab took about 6 months to really get back to mostly normal, and another 6 months to get all the way back. During that year I focused more on running and completed the Huntsville Grand Slam (Dizzy 50k, Rocket City Marathon, Recover from the Holidays 50k and Mountain Mist (I can't seem to find race recaps of Recover or RCM....I think that's because I ran with a pregnant friend who had not told anyone she was pregnant so I kept very quiet about the races since how I ran them was VERY guided by running with her!)

After those races were over I set my sights on IMChoo (2015). I was coaching a lot of adults and that summer I had a full team of kids. Looking back I think the symptoms of brain disease were already creeping in but I didn't see them.

My plan was to do an Ironman every other year. I wanted to do Louisville or Arizona in 2017 and the other in 2019. But my plans got totally derailed....

In 2017 my husband, brother-in-law and I did a relay at IM70.3 Augusta. We all signed up for the Chatty 70.3 that was going to take place in May of 2018. I don't remember why by BIL didn't race, but not only did Dwayne and I start directing the Rocket City Marathon, we were also both injured just before the race.

I think truth be told, my fitness just wasn't coming back like I had hoped it would. Every time I started working even the slightest bit hard I had a bit of a flare of symptoms (the biggest of which was crippling fatigue).

In July 2019 we pulled the trigger to race in 2020...but we all know what happened in March of 2020. I knew that race wasn't going to happen so I really stopped training.

Then I had a very personal (and private) tragedy hit in May of 2020 that shook me to the very depths of despair. In the midst of the Covid shutdown I felt like life as I knew it was going to be over.

Slowly but surely I began to heal.

We were all deferred from Chatty 70.3 to Augusta 70.3 in August but, again, I knew that race wasn't going to happen so I didn't train. When that one was cancelled we were deferred to Chatty 2021. In December Covid numbers spiked. Once again I knew that race wouldn't happen so I didn't train.

But then in like early May it became obvious it WAS going to happen after all...by then it was too late to train! One month earlier I started eating "functional food". (The Functional Food Center defines this as: “Natural or processed foods that contain biologically-active compounds; which, in defined, effective, non-toxic amounts, provide a clinically proven and documented health benefit utilizing specific biomarkers, to promote optimal health and reduce the risk of chronic/viral diseases and manage their symptoms." (The food I was consuming was whole food in a capsule.)

I fairly immediately started feeling better. My iron (which had been low enough that I had gotten 3 infusions in the previous couple of years) actually went UP for the first time. I was sleeping well and feeling great. So I decided I would just start the race and see what happened...

On NO training, I finished. It wasn't pretty but it was within the cutoff time! That experience emboldened me. But following that race, I was (once again) up and down with fitness...then we went to Colorado Springs for 6 weeks. Just before we left I needed another iron infusion. While we were there I tried to build up my running miles because we were signed up for the Boston Marathon (I was doing the virtual on the course, Dwayne was doing the real race)...it was held in October last year due to a postponement from Covid.

Shockingly, with my longest run being about 13 miles I finished in my best marathon time since before the brain disease!!

With that success in my back pocket, I signed up for the Little Rock Marathon the following spring. But, thanks to VERY bad information at the pre-race early start meeting, I ended up DNFing.

Fueled by a DNF fire, I started swimming again consistently in April of 2022 thinking I would sign up for another 70.3 but I wasn't sure which one. Then I started running more consistently.

And my fitness FINALLY seemed like it was going to catch on!

Several friends were headed to Memphis for the 70.3 so in May I decided to pull the trigger and sign up...and actually TRAIN.

See, I don't like to let adversity stop me. I don't like to let circumstances stop me. I believe completely God created me for endurance sport. I LOVE it. I love everything about it. I don't always love training because sometimes that is hard. And I have been very scared of flaring up the brain disease...I NEVER want to go back to that again and I NEVER want to have to be back on steroids again. Until the day God impresses upon me to stop I will keep running the race set before me with endurance so as to win the prize.

I keep pressing, even if I end up falling a bit behind with each step...hoping eventually my efforts will result in forward progress!

This is why I have already signed up for IMChoo 144.6 in September 2023. Ten years after my first full IM I will (God willing) complete my third.

Memphis 70.3 race recap coming up....

Expectations

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 21:13:00 +0000

When I signed up to do the 70.3 in Memphis I compared the elevation gain on the bike course (total of 1696) to that of the 70.3 in Chattanooga (2218) and compared the elevation profiles...

I concluded Memphis really didn't look very difficult compared to Chatty.

Now, let me be clear...the 70.3 course at Chatty is not easy, but the worst part is the big climb at Andrews. You come down a little hill and then make a sharp left hand turn and IMMEDIATELY go up the biggest climb on the course. But the rest of the course is NICE. It's "rolling". That's how the course at Memphis was described..."rolling".

I expected to love the Memphis course like I love the full bike course in Chattanooga (it's SO much better than the course at the 70.3 because the full course doesn't have that one big climb in it).

My expectations were NOT met.

The rolling hills on the courses at Chattanooga are glorious! You get to gain power and speed when you go down that carries you up the next little incline up. The road isn't super smooth, but it's not terrible.

The "rolling" hills in Memphis aren't really rolling...they are UP and ...slightly down...then flattish then UP again. A good part of the course is chip-seal road which is jaw-jarring rough.

AND...the course at Memphis is BEAUTIFUL!!! I mean TRULY BEAUTIFUL. There were NO major climbs and one nearly perfect downhill section-at least for me. I am a nervous descender. I don't like steep downhill sections, even if they are straight. The one fairly long downhill section on the Memphis course was just curvy enough to make it interesting but not curvy enough to make it scary. I only got up to 36 but by that point I was also pretty tired!

This brings me to the run course...Chattanooga 70.3 has 820 feet of gain whereas Memphis has a measly 470.

I expected it to be mostly flat.

My expectations were NOT met.

I was shocked at how "hilly" it really was. There were no big climbs. There wasn't anything that was just awful...but the ups were just relentless. And it seemed like every incline was in full sun!

But, once again, the course was BEAUTIFUL!!! I mean TRULY BEAUTIFUL! And I think one of the most spectator-friendly courses out there!

I will write up a full race recap later...for now, I can't tell you how much I LOVED the beauty of the bike and run courses. They were (are) ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!

And "hilly". Nothing horrible...no big climbs...but relentless!

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around!!

Coaching a Coach

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 19:00:00 +0000

I coach VERY few adults anymore. But a little over a year ago a friend of mine, Blair, came to me and said he had a goal of training for/completing an Ironman. He asked if I would coach him. After we met and talked (in probably WAY more detail and depth than he expected) I said I would be very happy to be part of his journey.

If you've known me any length of time you know I typically do not talk about who I'm coaching and I "never" name people in my blog, and "never" post on social media about my athletes. I feel like their story is their own to tell... but I got permission to make a post about Blair (even though he has no idea what I am going to say!).

I started a FaceBook post, but as I started writing, I realized it needed to be a blog post, because it is going to be long...just get a cup of coffee, or a tall glass of tea and settle in for a minute or ten.

I met Blair many years ago. Maybe I met someone who worked out at Iron Tribe Fitness, or maybe I just saw the gym off the parkway and wanted to know exactly what it was. I remember being very immediately impressed with the place, but more impressed with Blair as the owner/manager. Although I think I was training for the Grand Slam at the time I signed up to start working out there. I loved it. I think I worked out there about a year...maybe until I started heavily training for IMChoo 2015.

At that time I was also training A LOT of adults, I had a big kids team, I was training for IMChoo, along with teaching several Spin classes at the Y. There are only so many hours in a day so something had to give...the first thing I gave up was working out at ITF. Thankfully Blair and I remained friends over the years.

So when he said he wanted to take his time working toward completing an Ironman I was thrilled to be part of that journey with him.

I won't go into all the details of Blair's story, but suffice it to say, he has A LOT going on that takes priority over training. WAY more than the average person. The truth is, most people wouldn't even think of adding to the already full plate he had going on...but Blair is not like most people.

Blair is a man of strong character. He is the consummate family man (at least from the outside looking in). He's a business owner. He's a coach. He's very strong, determined, and dedicated. I told him he already had all the qualities that people usually do IM to prove they have. (I won't share his reasons for why he chose to make IM a goal-again, those are his to share/not share...but he could absolutely articulate a reason-which is a crucial foundation I require of anyone I choose to coach.)

Not long after training started, Blair had some MAJOR upheaval in his life (business and house moves to name a couple of the biggies). Then he had some knee issues and, illness...nothing major there just some nagging "stuff" going on that was counter to "perfect" training.

But Blair kept pushing through.

And that was the theme of his race yesterday. He just kept pushing through.

Now, let me be clear...that's the theme of pretty much EVERY Ironman race. In fact, that's the HALLMARK of an Ironman...we keep pushing through. We don't let obstacles stop us...we simply figure out what has to be done to get over, around, under, or through them. We don't get permanently derailed when we are thrown off course, we do what we must to get back on track.

Back in May Blair toed the line at IMChoo70.3...but he pulled himself off the course during the run. He had been really sick leading up to the race and realized almost immediately during the swim that he was not better....but, true to form, he pushed through the swim and the bike. In an astonishing display of strength and self-awareness he realized when he got to the run it was not wise to continue. The cost of completing that race was not worth the bragging rights to say he finished what really amounted to a training day.

He kept the end goal, finishing Ironman, in the very front of his mind.

Some people may have sacrificed other areas of their lives to make sure something like THAT never happened again. But Blair held steady. That apparent "failure" didn't shake him. (At least not outwardly.) It didn't cause him to doubt himself or his goal.

He never wavered.

One thing I've struggled with in life is balance. I'm an "all-in" kind of gal. Sometimes I've been "all-in" on something that was decidedly not the best thing for me....and oftentimes "all-in" has caused me to be very out of balance with everything (for example, I really NEED to be taking a nap, or maybe cleaning my house, but I'm "all-in" on this blog post!) Ironman seems like it's an "all-in" kind of endeavor, but the truth is, no sport we do for fun should rule your life. Training should fit your life, not the other way around. There's a very funny meme that I tried to find but couldn't...it shows a house with a VERY overgrown lawn and flowerbeds badly in need of weeding and it says something like "what Ironman training looks like". The point the "funny" meme is making is that oftentimes people training for Ironman neglect most of the other things in their life.

Now, I am not close enough to Blair personally to know if he did or didn't neglect other things. I mean, the truth is there are only so many hours in a day. Training hours have to happen at some point...people with busy lives do have to push something "out" to make room for training (show me an IM who doesn't have a busy life...). Sometimes what gets pushed is family time or time with friends, sometimes it's sleep, sometimes it's yard/housework...sometimes athletes will pay money for things they could do themselves (yard/housework, grocery or meal delivery....). From what I saw (again, on the outside looking in), Blair worked to make sure the big rocks got put in the jar first...and training wasn't one of the biggest rocks many days.

(If you aren't sure what I am talking about watch this.)

That is NOT to say he didn't train...but let's just say he didn't do every workout as written.

He was balanced.

Yesterday was the culmination of over a year of hard work. I won't write out his race report...but I will give you my spectator report...I saw him at the start, then twice out of the water (when he came out of the water then I sprinted across the green to watch him go up the "ramp"). Then I drove out to a spot on the bike course that allows spectators to drive from one side to the other of the "finger" ....so I got to see him 4 times on the bike-each time he looked strong despite the POURING rain! Then I waited on the Riverwalk (playing some music for the runners)...until I got worried. The (stupid) tracker made it look like he had stopped when in reality he was walk/running the whole time. I saw him twice more on the course, and then at the finish line....I cried like a baby when the announcer said

Blair Morris...YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!

Ironman is tough. Different people approach it in different ways. Getting to the start line is HARD, getting to the finish line is harder. But once you do it, it can never be taken away. It's not for the faint of heart.

This Saturday I will toe the line at a 70.3 once more...I'm not as ready as I'd like to be, but I have been training, and I'm as ready as I will get! Right now my plan is to, once again, set my stake in the ground of another Ironman next year. I hope I can be as balanced, unwavering, and push through to get to that start line (and ultimately the finish line) once more.

Putting the Last Bit of Hay in the Barn

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 16:51:00 +0000

In exactly one month I'll be "competing" in IM70.3 Memphis. I say "competing" because I've been (sort of) training for this race. I won't be competitive in the grand scheme of things-not against any other person in the race...but I will be competing against the voice in my head...okay, voiceS, plural.

A couple of months ago I had made up my mind to train hard but life gets in the way when training isn't a top priority. But I have been at least sort of training. I'm swimming regularly, running 2-3 times a week, and riding my bike at least once a week (ugh). It's not the full-blown training plan I intended when I finally pulled the trigger and signed up for this race, but it's more than I've done consistently since 2015 when I was training for IMChoo.

I'm not as ready as I would like, but I still have a month to go.

Let me be clear--you should not/can not train for a 70.3 in a month. But that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying I intend to get the last bit of "hay in the barn" before race day by being very intentional about what I'm doing. Last year when I did IM70.3 Choo I had done MUCH less before race day and I at least finished and I felt good the next day (other than a blister on my foot). My time was just barely less than the cutoff time, but I made it.

My A goal for this race is around 6:30. Looking at what I've been doing in training I think it's possible...not highly likely but possible. More likely my time will be between 6:45-7, but even that is huge given all that I've been through the last 7 years.

I still can't believe it's been that long since I started having big noticeable issues, but it was the fall of 2015.

For a while I thought it was just going to be a minor setback. I thought it was going to be like a minor injury that would resolve fairly quickly and I'd be back to my "normal" self, training and racing. My plan when I finished IMLT in 2013 was to do an Ironman every other year. But that plan was completely derailed. There was a time when I questioned if I'd ever be able to return to endurance sports. Then it became apparent that I could "participate" in events with longer cutoff times, I questioned if I'd ever be able to "really race" again,

But here I am!

One of the biggest things that has changed has been my thyroid meds.

When I was first having issues in the fall of 2015 I was on Synthroid. Somewhere along the way I switched to Tirosint (a more pure form of T4). Then after I finished the steroid treatments I was on a quest to figure out why my brain was attacked and ended up seeing a doctor in Kansas who put me on a desiccated thyroid hormone (first NatureThroid then Armour) which is a natural T4/T3 compound. But after a couple of years I realized what I was doing wasn't working as well as I wanted it to so I switched back to my local endocrinologist who put me back on Tirosint. But it didn't take long for me to see that wasn't the answer either. He ended up sending me to a different doctor who put me on a synthetic T4/T3 compound where he controlled the amounts of each I was getting. He also prescribed LDN (a medication that is meant to fight general autoimmunity).

At the same time I also got another iron infusion and I started eating Juice Plus. I almost immediately felt better. But I didn't get repeat blood work for my thyroid...fast forward to that fall (2021)...

We got to go out to Colorado Springs for 6 weeks. Just before we left I got another iron infusion. While we were there I started noticing a MARKED improvement in how I was feeling. Then the month after we got back (after I did the Boston (virtual) Marathon-on the course) I got covid.

My immune system went completely haywire. When I got my thyroid numbers checked they were WAY WAY WAY off (VERY high antibodies, high TSH, low T4, low T3). We figured it was due to covid and he increased my LDN. But that didn't work. So he increased my T4 and T3. But that still hasn't completely worked (my numbers are still not where they need to be).

I think my thyroid hasn't ever really been "right". I think it was close but not really ideal between late 2010 and fall 2015. But I don't think it's been even close since then. I don't think it's really good even now.

The thyroid impacts EVERY SINGLE CELL in your body! It regulates the rate your cells use energy. So if the thyroid isn't working properly you might be either amped up (hyperthyroid) or sluggish (hypothyroid).

So, in the analogy of putting hay in the barn (training)...if the thyroid is slow to produce or if it isn't converting what your body makes (T4) into what your body uses (T3) then you will not be producing much hay, not matter what you try to do...the hay is going to be VERY SLOW GROWING and you'll be able to store VERY LITTLE of it in the barn. Now, I think I'm doing better than I have been in a VERY LONG TIME, but I'm still not where I need to be.

But I'm so much farther along than I have been in the last 7 years! I've FINALLY started losing weight...I'm at my lowest weight since early 2016. I'm running better than I have since like fall of 2015! My swim is not great...I don't understand why but it's just not. I'm attributing it to a lack of upper body strength which is the most likely culprit. My bike is "fine"...but I REALLY need to put more time in the saddle. The hard part about bike training is that Dwayne REALLY does not want me riding anywhere except the Arsenal-that makes it nearly impossible to get good miles in. I do have a trainer, but it's a PAIN to take the back tire on and off...(excuses excuses...)

Well...I have one more month until race day! By this time a month from now I should be on the run (I better be on the run by now!). I'm so stinking excited!

Challenge Accepted...

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 00:06:00 +0000

Several weeks ago a couple of the kids I'm coaching challenged me to a duel...okay what actually happened is this...

One of them was training for the Huntsville Sprint Tri, the other one was training for that race as well as the Kids Fly Tri (a local kids triathlon I direct). They asked me if I was going to do the Sprint. I explained that I wasn't going to do it because my personal opinion is that race should be "reserved" for beginner/novice triathletes. It sells out pretty much every year so if "seasoned" triathletes flock to it, that doesn't leave spots open for first-timers who are maybe on the fence about signing up. I also prefer long SLOW races over short (pedal-to-the-floor) sprint races. At each training session they kept saying "Coach Dana, you should 'slow down' and do that race with us." I explained that I wouldn't be "slowing down" to race "with them"...I would have to speed WAY up to be "with them". Along the way it seemed they were spending more time fishing than training so I agreed to race them. I told them they should easily beat me so I made a deal with them-if I beat them they had to wash their mom's car! For the record they didn't accept those terms, but I did sign up.

I started training harder for all things sprint-snake swimming in the pool, fast transitions (including putting speed laces in my shoes), and I even practiced faster turns on my bike (I usually slow down quite a bit in turns). I coach these things but it's been a LONG TIME since I've raced a sprint, and I've only ever done one pool triathlon (my very first).

I was NERVOUS leading up to the race. I can't remember a time when I RACED an actual person (two people in this case). I have mentally set my sites on people in races trying to pass them, or I used to find out who was racing in my age group and I would have a goal of doing better than someone who was about my speed but they never knew that was my goal! I figured I would do the swim in about 9:15-9:30 based on paces I had been swimming (I predicted 10:00 when I registered). I figured I'd ride about 17mph with little/no wind. The run was truly a toss up. Some days I can run well, some days I can't. I was thinking I'd end up with about a 10:45ish pace.

I was certain the boys would beat me on the swim-although they didn't seem to be swimming very well in terms of endurance. I was certain they would beat me in transitions because I was going to be riding with bike shoes whereas they would be in tennis shoes. They should have EASILY been able to beat me in the run, but they had not been running any distance so I wasn't sure what their endurance was going to look like. I was HIGHLY confident I would beat them on the bike because I have a fast bike, but I knew it wouldn't be enough to really make up for time I would lose on the swim and run --IF they put in time training, even just a little bit.

I picked up my packet on Friday and found out I was number 135 out of 400 (that seemed like a LOW number given my estimated time of 10:00 for a 400m swim). One of the boys was number 77 the other was like 153 or something like that. Interesting side note-the boy who was behind me put down 10:00 for his predicted swim finish time--that means A LOT of people predicted (guessed) 10:00.

RACE MORNING

I woke up super early race morning and debated back and forth about eating breakfast. I typically workout fasted and don't eat until about 11ish. I was estimating a finish time of about 1:10-1:15. I usually workout longer than that so I decided not to eat breakfast (I think that was a mistake). I had packed my bag the night before so I just puttered around the house until it was time to go. I got to the race and set up my stuff and talked to friends until the boys got there. They got set up and we walked through all the transitions (swim in, bike out, bike in, run out). Last minute potty break, and I got in the shower to get my hair wet (so it wouldn't soak up as much chlorine). We listened to the pre-race announcements and then got in line. As we got in line my stomach started to GROWL! I had brought a pre-race Gu so I choked it down without water and told myself I would be fine.

This race sends swimmers in two at a time about every 6 seconds. The line moved really fast. There was a little girl of about 9 behind me with a man I learned was her coach. She is a fast swimmer and had a very low number but held herself back so she could be on the road with him for the bike. We ended up going in the water together so I moved her closer to the lane rope to give her a better line.

I've been training for IM70.3 Memphis since April, but my swim has been SLOW. Like SUPER SLOW. And I've had a VERY hard time swimming without fins. I actually went last week to have my iron checked because I really seem to get very short of breath swimming more than biking or running. Last week I practiced 400s in the tri kit I intended to wear and shockingly my times were faster than they had been, but still very slow. 400y (swimming short course) is the longest continuous swim I've done without rests in probably a few years! (I only did that because of this race). All that to say I fully expected to be one of those people hanging on the end of the pool to catch my breath. Instead, I actually swam the whole thing with two tiny little stops (only because of congestion in the water), and I passed A LOT of people. I did get passed by several people...including the boy who started after me that I was racing!! As he passed, on the last like 25m, he said "hey Coach Dana!!".

I was JUST behind him coming out of the water. I ran to my spot, put my sunglasses on, helmet on-snap, and bike shoes on...grabbed by bike and ran to the mount line. I wish I could do a flying mount, but I've never even tried to learn how. I used to start with my shoes on my bike already but I decided not to try that this time-since it's been so long I figured I'd lose time fiddling with my shoes vs just climbing on. I didn't realize it at the time, but saw it in the boys' dad's video-153 FLEW out of transition and did the most beautiful flying mount to get ahead of me on the bike!! So I was a little shocked to see him about 1/2 mile in when I passed him. He was on a slower bike so I told him to catch me on the run as I raced to try to see if I could catch his brother.

The course kind of makes a big square of right hand turns, but there's one little section where you make a left, right, left, right then left again to go down the wrong side of the road...then you turn around, come back up on the wrong side of the road...then move over to the correct side again. As I was headed to the U turn I saw 77... I yelled out "I'm coming for you!!" and I cranked it even harder!!

Coming into that turn around I made sure there wasn't anyone behind me (some people will try to pass in turns even though it can be dangerous, but I also knew I was going to slow down to make that U turn)...it was clear. I started slowing about the time I heard the volunteer say "watch the hole"...about that time my tire apparently hit that hole and I was going down-pretty much directly onto my hip (good thing that's the most padded part of my body!)! A police officer ran over to make sure I was okay. I was up and checking my bike-it was fine...I quickly checked to see if I was bleeding-I was not, and then after a few people I had passed earlier passed me I got back on and took off knowing that was probably going to hurt later. I passed several people and played leap-frog with a few people...I kept telling people I was passing "I'll see you later when you pass me on the run!"

I came to the mount line and got stopped without incident, ran my bike in, racked my bike, helmet off, bike shoe off, bike shoe off...and proceeded to put my bike shoe BACK ON MY FOOT! LOL. This is why I preach "THINK about what you are going to do in transition before you get there!" My fastest transitions are always the ones I'm thinking about every move. I do NOT like my current running shoes. They are HARD to get on my feet. I bought new ones but since I had not been running in them I didn't want to start on race day. I got them on, grabbed my bib, my hat and a second Gu I had left in my hat and I took off.

The run is where the rubber really meets the road. Did I push too hard on the swim and bike? How will I hold up on the run with only 2 Gus worth of nutrition? (It had only been about 35 minutes at that point so I didn't feel like lack of fuel was going to be a factor.) I realized that if I could hold about a 10:00 pace I would come in a little over an hour...but almost immediately I "had to" walk.

I truly don't think lack of fuel was the issue. I found out today my iron is actually looking good. I discussed with my hematologist how I feel when I try to push (like I just can not get enough air and like I'm just gassed)...she really believes it's related to my low T4/high TSH (thyroid). If she is right the increase my thyroid doctor just made SHOULD have a good impact on my performance. 🙏🏼🤞🏼

I had talked to a guy earlier about the run...he LIED TO ME saying the greenway part would be in the shade...it was definitely NOT in the shade! But it was super nice to know I wasn't going to have to do two loops like the course used to be. It was also SUPER nice to be able to see 77 on his way back as I was on my way out...but he was looking STRONG. I "knew" there was no way I would catch him-I didn't. I saw 153 as I was on my way back (he was on the way out)...he looked like he was hurting (stomach/side cramps). I told him he was strong and he could catch me-he didn't.

I shifted my focus to the next person in front of me...I played leap frog with several people. One guy I passed on the bike was particularly memorable because he is a bigger guy wearing an orange tank top. As predicted, he passed me on the run (actually in transition because he was riding flat pedals and didn't have to change shoes in T2); he was just ahead of me at the turnaround. I laughed and said "see, I told you you'd pass me on the run!" He laughed as said something like "it won't stay that way" implying I would pass him eventually. I wasn't so sure, but I was trying.

I was playing leap frog with a 52 year old woman (age is on the left calf)...I couldn't see the number on her arm so I didn't know if I had started before or after her. In the last like 1/4-1/2 mile I passed her with orange shirt guy in my sites....about that time he turned around and jumped as if he had seen a bear chasing him...and he sped up accordingly!

I usually have a decent finish line kick. As hard as I pushed, I was certainly not feeling like I was really speeding up...and then I saw my honey pot at the finish line! I had seen him twice before (at the start and end of the bike course). Seeing him always gives me a boost...but it wasn't enough to pass orange shirt guy!

I finished in 1:07:32.

Swim: 9:08
T1 1:20
Bike 24:15
T2 1:10
Run 31:38

Good enough for 2nd in my age group (out of 17), only 1:19 behind a really fast Ironman athlete...I found out later she hadn't trained at all but I was super stoked to be so close in time to her! I was 27th out of 93 females and 74th out of 272. Interestingly enough in my age group I came in 3rd for the swim, 5th for the bike, and 4th for the run. I came in 1st in T1 and 4th in T2....it's incredible that I came in 2nd in the age group. (First place came in 4th in the swim, 3rd in the bike and 2nd in the run.)

Overall I feel VERY good about how well I did. I can see a few things I could (should) have done better...

I should have eaten breakfast (although I really don't think it made a big difference)
I should have paid closer attention at the turn around to have avoided the hole (although I felt like I was paying CLOSE attention so I don't know...)
I should have maybe run in my new shoes-or my old ones (although that might have saved a few seconds on my T2 time, it might have hurt my run)
The main thing I should have done... focused harder on embracing discomfort on the run...I talked to a lot of people on the run (not conversation, but cheered). I think I could maybe have pushed harder, but who knows.

Before IM70.3 Memphis I need to move my aero bar pads-they are new and they are too close together to be comfortable. It wasn't a big deal for this race, but for a 70.3 it will be annoying. I'm REALLY looking forward to Memphis! I have FIFTY-FOUR DAYS to keep training! It will be here before I know it!

Lucky Number 13

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 22:06:00 +0000

Memorial Day marked my 13th running of the Cotton Row 10K (sort of...thanks to Covid there was not a race in 2020 but I ran "most of" the course...last year the race was postponed from Memorial Day to Labor Day...thankfully I ran it on Memorial Day because we were "living in" Colorado Springs on Labor Day!)

Cotton Row 10K is the only 10K race I've done, and I've done it every year since I really started running! (Well, I did run a 10K at the end of Rocket Man Olympic distance triathlon, but I don't count that!)

This year was the first year in a LONG time that I went in having been consistently running. My expectations were still very low though because I had not many hills and my endurance had not really been tested in a while. My A goal going in was 1:15 or better (about a 12min pace), my B goal was to just finish.

Dwayne was announcing the race so we drove separately that morning. I had volunteered to get the awards so I did still get there earlier than I might have if I was "just" running but not as early as Dwayne got there! Since I had several boxes to carry over to the awards tent I got to park fairly close which was very helpful since I made a few trips back and forth. It was already getting hot but it didn't seem as hot as years past.

After I worked with another volunteer to line out all the awards I went to the bathroom and lined up in about the middle of the pack. It was nice to hear Dwayne's voice booming over the speakers!

This race is special in that, because it's on Memorial Day, they have a pre-race program that honors our fallen soldiers. This year marks the 50th "anniversary" of the Viet Nam war so the main speaker was the daughter of an MIA soldier from that war. She had a gripping story to tell. This was the very first year it seemed EVERYONE in the crowd was silent as she talked about her father. They called veterans to salut and then played taps -- that gets me every time I hear it. After "America the Beautiful" we were off.

My plan going in was to NOT run with anyone else, but to just do my own thing-ideally working to do my very best ....

I can NEVER say/think/hear that phrase without thinking of this scene from Facing the Giants...

...anyway...My plan was to give my "very best" and see what that might end up being.

CR10K is an interesting race. The first 3 miles are basically uphill culminating in "the hill", then the last 3 are basically downhill. Because of that, it's crucial that I not go out too hard on the front half so I will have gas in the tank to really fly on the back half. So I wore one earphone and played music that I could sing to! A friend passed me and asked how on earth I was singing so I explained I was running intervals and trying to keep gas in the tank. I saw her a few times but at some point she passed me and was gone.

I saw another friend, the gal I leap-frogged with at Cookie Dash...she is older than me but she is an awesome runner. She had no idea I decided I was "racing" her but when she said she was taking her first walk break I decided that's exactly what was going down-I wanted to finish in front of her somehow.

Here's the thing-I had no idea if she was injured, tired, training for something else, running both the 10K and 5K afterward...I just knew from experience that she is faster than me on any given day so I wanted to try to "race" her to give me someone to compete with. It would have been much more meaningful if she was a willing competitor, but that wasn't the point for me...I just wanted someone to "target"...and it worked.

Up until the first decent incline (when my friend took her first walk break and I was taking my 5h!) I was trying to maintain a 3-4 minute run and a 1 minute walk interval. After that however my intervals devolved into "by feel/by hill". But I believed once I go over the major climb I'd be able to pick up the pace so I wasn't horribly upset.

I got through the first 5K right at 35 minutes. I was on track to slay my 1:15 or less goal since I believed I would negative split the race. I felt STRONG going up Mountainwood...a little too strong if I'm being honest. But I had not done any kind of speed work or hills (other than one interval run several weeks before with a friend who is running MUCH faster than me, but I felt like that was a one-off and she was pacing/pushing me).

On the way down Bankhead I opened myself up just a little bit and it felt GLORIOUS!!! It reminded me of the good old days when I could run fast! I only got down to about an 8:17 pace but it felt wonderful the short time I ran it. I actually had a 10 minute SOLID run!! After that I started the negotiations with my interval. It wasn't as hot as it has been in the past, but it was pretty darn hot out. Other than a couple of intervals I was feeling too good to walk I pretty much ran the last 1.8 miles as 1 minute of running and :30 walking. I took my last walk break with a half mile to go and then made up my mind to run it in from there.

When I rounded the last corner I heard Dwayne cheering for me and then saw him running beside me a little bit. I immediately got worried because he still hasn't recovered from knee surgery so he should NOT have been running! He only went a few yards with me and then encouraged me to pick it up to the finish line!

I got my pace down to a whopping 6:16 for the final few yards!!! The back half was right at 5 minutes faster than the front half!! With a finish that strong I probably held a little too much in reserve, but I ended up with my FOURTH fastest Cotton Row time EVER--1:05!! Here's the thing...I've only ever broken an hour one time, and the other two times I was working HARD to break an hour so I was just seconds over an hour both times. To be THAT close to my best times was HUGE!! (My next closest time was 1:06 in 2014 and then 1:12 in 2015 (that was the year I "ran" with Dwyane who ended up SICK with the flu that night!).

The bigger shock was after I finished the race I was able to work the awards (which is a production since there are 2 races to give awards for) and I NEVER felt tired, stiff or sore even one time!!!

I was SO PLEASED with this race!! And, I honestly felt like I was actually "racing". Unlike Cookie Dash where I was convinced every single person was leaving me in their dust, I felt STRONG in this race and I passed SEVERAL people toward the end....including passing my own expectations of myself which is the most important win of the day!

The women in my age group are FAST so I ended up 24th out of 56 (still in the top 50% - YAY)! I was 742nd out of 1284 listed finishers (so not in the top 50% overall, but close enough for me!). I have no way to know what place I was among the females...results aren't broken down that way.

Overall I am THRILLED!!! This gave me the confidence to move forward with full on training for my next big adventure-Ironman 70.3 Memphis on October 1st!! I pulled the trigger and paid my money a couple of weeks ago and laid out my training plan. I've been very consistent in execution so far and I'm feeling stronger every day!! My swim is incredibly slow, but I started strength training today to help that along. Dwayne bought some new race wheels for my bike and power pedals ((that is the pedals will tell me the watts I am generating, not that they are powered LOL)). (It sounds like he was being really nice but the truth is I let him "borrow" my race wheels with a power tap hub and he didn't want to give them back!! But he could have given them back and then bought new ones for himself so he really was being super supportive and nice! He also bought me a super awesome Garmin for my bike that allows me to have maps and data in my face instead of just on my watch!)

I am just so encouraged and hopeful about what this summer will bring!!!

Stay tuned!!

Negotiations

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 26 May 2022 11:03:00 +0000

It's been a while since I have run with the intention of running "as fast as I can"....a LONG LONG while. Because I had not run the Cookie Dash 5K on the new course I decided to sign up and attempt to "race" it. My A goal was to run the whole thing, but I knew going in that was unrealistic because I haven't run more than a full mile straight since last fall. (When we came back from living in Colorado Springs for 6 weeks I ran 3.5 miles of trails without stopping!! I thought I was queen of the world!)

One fact I wasn't considering-this is now an afternoon race. I do NOT like running in the afternoon. I don't see how people do it. I feel like if I haven't gotten my workout in by 10am the day is lost! That is especially true for running!

Dwayne volunteered to make cookies for the race-which I found amusing since he NEVER cooks/bakes. But he did this all on his own! (They were the break and bake cookies, but he made a special trip to the store to buy them and baked them all himself-like 5 dozen (maybe more!?))

We loaded up the cookies and headed to the race. On the way we saw what should have been a TERRIBLE wreck! Thankfully it happened at the exact right time for us to avoid being hit head on, and at the exact right time for it to only be a single vehicle accident where no one ended up hurt. Guard rails SAVE LIVES! But it really shook me up to say the least. We also found out there was STANDING WATER in Dwayne's back seat (but that's another story for another day).

We got to the race; Dwayne scooted off to get in place to volunteer, I visited the potty and then lined up in what I thought was about the middle of the pack. But when the race started it seemed as though I was in the back.

Almost immediately I felt like I was the last person running and every person was running off and leaving me. I looked down to check my pace about 1/3 mile in-8:45. I wasn't running slow but it honestly felt as though EVERYONE was running off and leaving me. Small children, a man with a cane, a woman pushing a stroller...what felt like EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the race was leaving me in their dust. It was mind-blowing and oh so discouraging. I kept thinking "how is everyone here so fast!?" I questioned my data but I certainly felt like I was running "fast".

I knew I couldn't keep it up, so I started negotiating with myself. I landed on "I'll run 5 minutes and walk 1 minute"...after all I had been doing a 3/1 or a 4/1 leading up to this race so 5/1 was pushing it. I was also running much faster than usual. That first 5 minutes was an average pace of 9:18. After my minute walk break I started running again-with no hope of catching the runners in front of me (but I did realize I was indeed not dead last). My second 5 minute run was an average of 9:22. I was pleased that I hadn't slowed too much, but I also didn't think I could keep up with that interval. My heart rate was 177 which was fairly high for me.

The negotiations resumed..."Okay, I will walk until my heart rate is 155 and then run again"...that took about 75 seconds. Hmmm..."Okay, I will run 4 minutes for the next interval"...This time my heart rate got up to 179 but my average pace dropped to 9:19.

I was about 1/2 done and I was feeling it. I was wishing at that point that I had signed up for the one mile instead of the 5K. I kept playing "leap frog" with several people. One pair was a woman I know who is a little older than me (and a lot faster than me) running with a young gal. They were running solid so when I walked they passed me but when I ran I passed them. But they were talking NON STOP and I was doing good just to BREATHE.

After the 3rd "long" interval I started to walk but realized the aid station was just up ahead so I forced myself to "run" to it. That's when I saw my sweet husband! He and one other guy were the only 2 working the aid station.

I SERIOUSLY considered stopping to help them but I quickly realized they didn't need help because I was so close to the back of the pack we were spread far enough out that two people could easily cover it! At that point my overall average was 9:47. I just couldn't understand how everyone was SO FAST in this race. Dwayne told me later that I was NOWHERE near the back. I think it was just a case of it being a very small race so everyone was very spread out along the course.

I grabbed water from Dwayne and he asked my how I was doing. I really couldn't talk at that point but shook my head and kept going.

Dwayne "gets on to me" when we run together because I talk A LOT. He says "if you wouldn't talk so much you could run faster". But 1) when I'm running with him talking IS the point, 2) I like talking more than running and 3) I haven't really thought about running "fast" in a VERY VERY long time. Well, on this day, in this race, I couldn't talk. I could barely tell the volunteers thank you.

After I left the aid station I renegotiated my interval to 1/1. My HR dropped to 154 and went up to 172 then back down to 153 for the next walk break.

I had a chat to remind myself my goal was to "race"...to "push". My HR was recovering quickly so I renegotiated again to 1 minute of running and :30 of walking. I only had a mile to go. Ideally I would just run it. I briefly considered slowing down to try to run the whole last mile, but I truly felt I would have a lower average pace if I did the interval so that's what I landed on, for the next 3 intervals.

At some point I passed a friend of mine who passed me back just after the aid station. We might have played leapfrog just a bit but at some point he left me behind. He was close enough that I thought I might be able to catch him so I set my sights on him. About that time a woman and her daughter who looked to be about 8 or 9 passed me chatting about my hat...I was wearing my Flying Pig hat (not from the Flying Pig race, just a hat with flying pigs on it). I felt so very discouraged that I was running as hard as I possibly could and this little girl was passing me, chatting it up with her mother.

I don't remember a time I felt so utterly discouraged in a race. It was the strangest feeling. I honestly couldn't figure out how EVERYONE was passing me so easily. It wasn't as if I was running super slow, my overall average at that point was about 10:11 which "should be" about middle ground for a 5K. (It WAS about middle ground, but at the time it didn't FEEL like it!)

When I got to where I could see the finish I had about 1/3 mile to go. I kept telling myself to just RUN the whole thing but my HR was telling me to take the :30 walk breaks. Even though the breaks weren't enough to bring it down more than a beat or two it was preventing it from climbing higher.

When I hit 3 miles I ran in the last .1 in 90 seconds at an 8:26 pace (peak HR of 182) to finish in 31:57. I finished 174th place out of 324. Solidly in the middle of the bell curve, a bit slower than 1/2 way, and certainly NOT in the very back like it felt. I was 8th out of 16 in my age group (17 really but the last one was the sweeper so I'm not counting her). Interesting side note, the female masters winner was 63 years old and she ran a 21:42!!

When I take a big step back and examine my performance against the backdrop of my "training" I did phenomenally well! That's the fastest 5K I've run in 7 years!! The closest I've come to that time was a 5K I ran with Dwayne in 2019 at John Hunt Park. We ran it in 33:34 with him pushing me the whole time. Before that I ran a 5K training run in 31:15 (9:54 pace) (surely with Dwayne) in October 2015, and a 5K run in 30:01 (9:09 pace) that was much of the Cookie Dash course (but backwards) on a random Tuesday morning.

I completely believe I still have speed in me...I just have to train it back out!

Since Cookie Dash I've made the decision, and signed up for, Memphis 70.3 (October 1st). I've been swimming 3 times a week for a few weeks now, and I've been running fairly consistently on Tuesday and Thursday. I have ridden my bike twice...I've already "trained" more than I did for my last 70.3!! But the plan is to ACTUALLY train, with an actual plan that I will write up today that will include not only running, biking and swimming but yoga and strength training!!

Here goes something!

Another Half with a Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Wed, 11 May 2022 13:10:00 +0000

After Oak Barrel Half a friend asked me if I was going to run the Bridge Street Half. I had not planned on running it. I don't love that course -like AT ALL- but I do love the finish party and I usually love the medal. This year the medal was fine, the registration shirt looked really awesome, but the price was more than I really wanted to pay for a cool shirt. But when my friend said she was considering it I said I would absolutely do it with her. She is the gal who ran with me for my first ever Rocket City Marathon. She is in the group I've been running with on Tuesday and Thursday and I just love her to pieces. I knew we'd talk the whole time and I knew I wouldn't even see the course for the conversation, so I signed up.

The shirt didn't disappoint, except WHY do shirt makers think women like v neck shirts? I don't understand why 95% of the time men's are crew neck and women's are v neck? I like a more fitted CREW neck shirt....and the shirt is super thin....but I love the way it feels and it's sweet looking.

The morning of the race my friend picked me up and the chatting began! Another friend was going for a PR (sub 2 hour half) so we talked some about that. I knew it was going to be "easy" for her because she was BARELY over at Oak Barrel and Bridge Street is a much flatter course.

We went to the bathroom and then lined up...minutes later we were off. We set out to run a 3/1 interval (just like we do Tuesday/Thursday mornings). My legs were TIRED. I was wondering when we first started if I was going to be able to hang on the whole time. My friend had been having some issues with her hip/piriformis; she was saying it was going to take a little bit for it to loosen up so we commiserated a little bit but we stayed on target almost the whole time. It felt like we blinked and we were at mile 3 or so.

I saw another friend who had been at Oak Barrel; she asked what interval we were doing (3/1) and asked if we minded if she stayed with us. Of course we didn't. But I think we didn't give her an opening to join in our conversation! She stayed with us quite a while and was running strong but I noticed that she was holding her head down and breathing heavier than I would have expected in the run intervals*. At one point I looked back to see where she was; she said she was fine and told us to keep going.

(*When I saw her after the race I asked if I could share a couple of my observations with her...when she said yes I talked to her about keeping her chest "open" and her head up while running...she told me a few days later she tried it and felt much better! YAY!)

The miles were really flying by. It didn't really register on me just how far we were running until about mile 8 and I realized we still had 5.1 miles to go! I have to admit, I was TIRED and HOT. I think that race doesn't have quite enough aid stations but then again, it would help if I carried water with me! I also wasn't paying close attention to fueling.

Dwayne was watching my live track and was texting that we could break two and half hours but we slowed way down toward the end. We were both tired and she was in pain. There's a couple of little hills on the backside, and then there was the zig zag of the Double Helix... (I'm in the minority probably but I do NOT like that part of the course-running on concrete and zig zagging along a DNA strand is tiring to me!) I had to laugh because his mentality in a race is "run the fastest time possible"...my mentality lately has been "run with friends I love to chat with and enjoy my time with them!"

We were both ready for it to be over about mile 12...we ran around the Westin for the 2nd time of the day and then jumped a curb to run into the heart of Bridge Street and across the finish line! 2:33:05. Sweet! I felt confident if I had been out there to get the fastest time possible I would have broken 2:30...but I knew without a doubt I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much! We found out just after we finished that our friend had indeed broken 2 hours!

We got water and a banana, chatted with more friends, and headed home.

Later that day Dwayne and I were running errands...I told him about reading a blog when I first started running written by a gal who had run a half marathon and then was doing all kinds of things with her family the rest of the day. I remember thinking how crazy that seemed to me. In my mind I would have needed a nap and would have been wiped out the rest of that day and the next! But here I was doing that very thing.

It's funny because I'm pretty far into my "athletic career" as it were but I continually find myself struck with shock over where I'm currently at. I think the biggest factor at play is the five years I've battled with the effect/after-effects of the brain disease. To be at a place (FINALLY) that I can run a half marathon on a whim and then run errands the rest of the day (and then teach a hard Spin class the next morning, that I actually DO myself)...shocks the crap out of me!

Thanks so much to the friends that keep me going!

Next up--my first RACE in a LONG time...and more shocking myself!

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around.

Whiskey Hill

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 15:43:00 +0000

About 3 weeks before the Oak Barrel Half Marathon a friend of mine (who lives out of state) asked me if I was running in it. I said I was not but I would see if I could get a spot...turns out they do have charity slots! If you aren't familiar with that race, it's a half marathon in Lynchburg Tennessee (home of Jack Daniels) that goes up what I've heard is a beast of a hill (Whiskey Hill). I had never done the race before because it sells out within hours (maybe minutes?) of opening every year. I signed up in 2020 but...we all know what happened in the spring of 2020. They did actually have the race that fall but it was on the day my son was getting married so I couldn't defer. The only races I've ever signed up for super far in advance have been half and full Ironman races....

I've always heard wonderful things about this race...any race that sells out super fast has to be good, right? I've even been up there to spectate once. Other than knowing the race director, the course goes up a massive hill and people love it, I didn't know anything else about the race at all. But my sweet friend (who I LOVE spending time with) was signed up and she was willing to run slow so I sent in a check made out to one of their charities in order to get my spot secured.

I'd like to say I trained, but, other than running 21.8 miles at Little Rock, and a few 4 and 5 mile runs, I didn't.

Dwayne got up super early in order to come with me to Lynchburg Saturday morning...that was a really nice surprise. (A friend I was going to ride with got sick the day before so I thought I might be going up alone.) The instructions STRESS STRONGLY that you need to arrive early because parking is limited. That fact along with the fact I had to pick up my packet that morning had us getting there about 90 minutes before race start.

I got my packet from a SUPER friendly volunteer-who was FREEZING COLD and still smiling-that included a NICE quarter-zip sublimated pullover. Then I went to wait in the car until it got closer to start time.

About 20 minutes before the start I made a quick trip to a portopotty (there were A LOT of them so the line went FAST) and then I went to hang out in the back of the race crowd to wait for the friend who roped me into this. I got to see several people I had not seen in a while and I got some great hugs! My friend and her husband showed up...more great hugs! After the National Anthem and some announcements that could NOT be heard AT ALL in the back, the race was started and we creeped up to the start line.

I will say I was nervous. My friend told me her longest run was 8 miles, but she's always been faster than me so I didn't really know if our definitions of "slow" were going to line up. I had been doing a 3/1 run/walk so she said that was good for her so we started that from the get go.

The course for this race is BEAUTIFUL! Like SERIOUSLY BEAUTIFUT! There is ONE part where you go through a cow farm that was eye-watering pungent but other than that blip this is hands-down the best half marathon course I've ever been on! I LOVED IT. It's challenging but I didn't think it was horrific. I think I had built Whiskey Hill up to be so horrible in my mind that when we got there I was like "is this really it?" Don't get me wrong, it's not easy. It is a switch-back steep hill for a bit, but it's nothing like Mountainwood on the Cotton Row course. I didn't feel the need to take a breather. I couldn't have run up it this day but I can actually see getting to the point I could run up it (but I don't know if I would want to because the "cost" of running it might truly be more than it's worth...other than to say "I did it!").

We ended up negotiating on our run/walk intervals because it feels like wasting a downhill to walk there and it's HARD to run uphill so our intervals became haphazard. There were a few times I was really watching the time, wanting to walk before the time was up...but there were also a few times we ran through our walk break knowing an uphill was coming soon.

The best part of the race was getting a chance to catch up with my friend. I love her so much. She moved a while back but when she was here I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her. I have been to see her a couple of times but it's been a long time. She's just fun and smart and super happy...I love being around her so getting to run with her for 13.1 miles was a treat!

After you go up Whiskey Hill you run along the top from about mile 4.75-8.5. After that you get a GLORIOUS, easy downhill to the finish. I was feeling SO STRONG. Like crazy strong. It was a shock how strong I felt actually. It was incredibly encouraging.

Dwayne kept messaging me with predicted finish times and encouragements. He wasn't factoring in the MAIN reason I was running this race was to SOCIALIZE with my friend-not to run the fastest 13.1 mile race possible! I think I'd have been happy if we walked the whole thing-more time to talk!

As we neared the finish line I fought the urge to speed up so we could finish side by side...it worked we ended up with the EXACT same finsh time! 2:38:25.

Here's the Relive video of our race...

The finisher party was fantastic! They had delicious Brunswick Stew! They also had "hoecakes", pimento cheese sandwhiches and grilled cheese sandwhiches...I didn't eat those since I'm not eating gluten and dairy. The whole square was shut down for the party. I picked up my finisher socks and bought a Lynchburg magnet; we said our goodbyes to our friends and we headed back home.

I will certainly be online when registration opens up next year to make sure I get in...this race sells out FAST every year. Now I understand why! :D

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around.

Bad Information = Bad Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 15:40:00 +0000

We worked the Little Rock Expo, advertising The Rocket City Race Weekend (we are moving to a two-day event with a 5K and 10K on Saturday, and TWO half marathons and the full marathon on Sunday).

--Okay, I know some of you reading will be wondering...why two half marathons? Well, our half marathon has always been the "BACK" half of the marathon course. That's the part of the course that runs through the Space and Rocket Center and Botanical Gardens. We have to limit the number of runners who can register for that race because we can't flood the back half of the course with too many people. So we worked to make the front half VERY interesting and fun so that we could bring in more people to our wonderful city....

Back to my Little Rock Marathon race report...

If you read "Part 1" you know I thought I had done my due diligence in gathering information with regard to doing/not doing an early start at the Little Rock Marathon.

Years ago Little Rock didn't have an early start at all...everyone started at the same time... which meant the police were out there a VERY long time for the slowest runners. They have a slogan "the race for all paces" because for years they basically didn't have a cut-off. They might move you to the sidewalk, but they wouldn't cut anyone off (at least I had never heard of anyone being cut off). A few years ago they implemented the "early start" for anyone who was going to finish in "MORE than six and a half hours"...saying the cutoff for the regular start was 6 hours. I was caught up in that the last time I did the marathon. I was thinking I would be right at 6 hours and had no idea when I should start so I went with the regular start. I think I finished in JUST SLIGHTLY over 6 hours (and still got a listed finish time).

This year it was ever so slightly clearer-6 hours or less meant a regular start, over 6 hours meant an early start. But I really wasn't sure how we'd finish. I was figuring 5:45-6:15. So I went to the early start meeting and got information...They said early starters were ABSOLUTELY NOT ALLOWED to pass the 6 hour pacers-AT ANY TIME, even at the finish. They also said the "hard cutoff" was at mile 19.2 and was going to be at 12:45pm. That meant with a regular start we had to maintain, at the very least, an average pace per mile of 14:50. I figured there was NO WAY we'd miss that. And, I was right...but...

Well...let me back up and explain why they won't allow early starters to pass the 6 hour pacer (who starts early). That pacer "opens" the race. The police stay in front of the front runner...the schedule of police working the intersections and the aid stations are based on a 6 hour pace starting at 7am. If a faster runner were to get out in front of the 6 hour pacer the police would not be ready at intersections and the aid stations wouldn't be open and ready to go on time. It would set up a very unsafe situation.

If you are a runner and a mathematician you can figure out the leaders of the regular start would overtake the 6 hour early start pace group but that doesn't happen until about mile 18. It's MUCH easier for the sake of having easy to follow rules to say "early starters may not EVER pass the 6 hour pacer" rather than allowing that rule to be fuzzy. I understand and can respect that rule. I can also fully understand why there is a cutoff time on the course. It's at the perfect spot...at 19.2 the course turns left and does a VERY VERY VERY long out and back along the river. Not meeting that cutoff time allows the runners to be turned so the course can be shut down. Totally reasonable. I thought 12:45 was VERY generous...and it turns out it was "too" generous...

But let me start at the beginning

I met my friend in the last corral...where I was supposed to be. She was actually supposed to be further up based on her projected finish time of something like 4:30. Since she had run Snickers the day before she had planned on taking her time with me and just having "fun" running back-to-back marathons. She had never been that far back in a marathon before so she was enjoying the antics that happen with the people who are out there getting our money's worth (costumes of all sorts!). The gun went off and we crawled to the start.

The race was smaller this year so it didn't take nearly as long to get to the line and before we knew it we were off. We started out next to the 5:45 pace group (there was NOT a 6 hour sweeper/pace group) but we quickly realized that group was NOT running a 5:45 pace so we didn't try to stay with them. We settled into an easy run. Mile 1 12:26. Mile 2 12:45. Mile 3 13:20. Mile 4 12:11. The course was different this year than the other 3 times I've run it so it was fun to try to figure out where we were. I realized we were close to the school I went to in the 2nd grade so I regaled my friend with stories of how my brother and I would walk to a school that we lived almost right beside only to be bussed across town. One day we missed the bus so we set out to walk there. We found a little (TINY) mom and pop store where we spent $.25 of our $1 lunch money to buy a Hershey bar... We started skipping school after that when were realized no one seemed to miss us at school that day! (We did eventually get caught!)

Mile 5 we came upon a friend of my friend's so we started running with her. That mile was 13:39. That was the mile we "stopped" at the first aid station of the day...I got the LAST cup they had! And, they were out of Gatorade! That was NOT a good sign. There were literally hundreds of people behind us. Mile 6 was 14:08...so I told my friend we had to leave her friend so we could stay on our pace target. Mile 7 12:47.

Mile 8 takes runners back over the Arkansas River bridge....13:45. Dwayne was messaging the whole time giving us updates on our predicted finish time. We were WAY ahead...and at that point VERY (VERY) glad we didn't start early (forcing us to slow down from our overall pace thus far). Mile 9 12:39.

Mile 10 has one little stinger of a climb and goes past the School of Law. I couldn't help but remember my high school self dreaming of going to Law School there. It's obviously changed a lot but I was flooded with memories. We also had a potty stop...14:00. Mile 11 we made up some time with a 12:29 split. However, we encountered another aid station that was out of Gatorade! This was shocking...it was a hot day and this was too early in the race to run out!

Mile 12 takes runners by the governor's Mansion--the Governor was actually outside taking photos with people!! I (we) didn't stop because there were a few people waiting to get pictures but how cool that he was out there!! There's some elevation gain there and we were feeling the lack of Gatorade at that point. That mile was 14:04.

Mile 13 seemed like it was faster but we had lost the half marathoners at the split, it was HOT, and we were climbing. The course goes by Central High School--famous because in 1957 the Governor of Arkansas actually brought in the Arkansas Army National Guard to prevent school desegregation. My dad was actually one of the National Guardsmen who was there carrying out the Governor's orders. (Shame on them.) That mile was 13:49. Mile 14 13:54...I was getting worried. We had seen too many miles over the 6 hour pace but Dwayne was messaging our predicted finish and we were still on target for about 5:45ish so we were doing fine.

Mile 15 is really where the Marathon truly begins...that mile takes runner by the Capitol Building and just beyond that is where the wonderful climbing begins. The Capitol Building is so impressive to me. It's an exact miniature replica of our nation's capital! I love seeing it and LOVE "running" past it in this race. I remember thinking on this day it was the hottest LRM I'd been to. What's "funny" is that they had been calling for storms ALL WEEK LONG. I honestly expected the race to be canceled, or for us to be pulled off the course because the storms were predicted to be BAD. We had maybe 4 drops of rain. At that point I was praying the sky would open up on us just to cool us off! We were slowing WAY DOWN but I expected this and had accounted for it...15:19. Looking at the time of day we needed to cover JUST over 4 more miles and we had like 90 minutes. We had PLENTY of time to make the 12:45 cutoff at 19.2...

Mile 16-18 is the most challenging part of the course. That's the long slow climb that makes you understand why LRM has a dinner plate sized medal!! THIS is where you really earn it. On this day I started wishing we had actually started early-not so much for the additional time as much as for getting us out of the heat 2 hours sooner! 16-16:23. Mile 17 14:07.

Then mile 18...I was telling my friend this was the hardest part of the whole race but we were WELL ahead of that 12:45 cutoff time at mile 19.2. So she stopped at a potty for an apparently very necessary "visit". By my watch we lost 4 minutes there...but, again, we had like 30 minutes to cover a mile (point two). We were golden even though that mile was our slowest of the day at 17:27.

Mile 18 to 19 the course goes through Allsopp Park and is a fairly steep(ish) downhill section that leads to the LONG out and back along the river. When I was in high school and college this park had a VERY bad reputation for being filled with drugs! It's a VERY pretty park actually. It's strange because you feel like you are in the middle of the woods there, not in the middle of a major city! That mile I was feeling really good...we were coming up on 19.2, we had PLENTY of time to make that 12:45 cutoff, we were both feeling decent enough to pick up the pace on the flat section so we could make up lost time to make the 6 hour cutoff...SWEET! The biggest complaint was that several aid stations had been out of Gatorade and the gels we expected were NOT at the aid stations! Mile 19 was 13:35.

The course crosses a major road, goes up and over a little "bridge", then turns left at the 19.2 mile aid station to start that LONG out and back... When we were on top of the "bridge" we could see the aid station...we had right at 15 minutes...SWEET!!

Just then a city vehicle sped past us and pulled sideways at the bottom of the little hill, the guy got out of the car and said something to the volunteer...my heart sank... The volunteer pointed to his left (our right) and told the 2 runners in front of us they had to turn...then told us the same thing.

HOW DID WE MISS THE CUTOFF WHEN WE WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE ALMOST 15 MINUTES???????

I did NOT want to argue with the volunteer-he was just doing what he was told. It was a city vehicle so maybe there was something I didn't know? The aid station was to the left. I considered saying "hey, we need water (and hopefully Gatorade if they weren't out)" and then quietly continue on our way...but that felt very WRONG to me to "sneak" past this volunteer who was just doing what he was told.

I pulled out my phone and called Dwayne to tell him that we had gotten turned...we missed the cutoff and were now DQ/DNFs. That call was placed at 12:33, after we had turned and started walking. (This is important...)

My friend was PISSED. I was devastated. I am the one who made the decision for us to skip the early start. I felt like I must have somehow gotten the cutoff time wrong. I wasn't thinking clearly enough to check my text message to Dwayne. But even if I had checked it right then I still would not have argued with the volunteer.

We walked all the way to the lipstick stop (LRM has a lipstick station right before the finish line where they give free lipstick and they have a mirror for you to apply it...so you'll look good for the finish line)! Thanks to the idea from a wonderful Marathon Maniac who goes by the name "Lipstick Lady"! Then we ran in to get our 21.81 mile medal with a DQ story.

My friend said she would never to LRM again, but I told her this was a one-off kind of thing...I LOVE that race almost like she loves RCM. She caught them on a bad day-running out of cups at that early aid station, running out of Gatorade, us getting turned on the course by the volunteer...those were not the normal LRM experience!

Later I checked my text message to Dwayne--I was right, it said 12:45...I also went back to the race instruction email...the one that said the cutoff for the regular start was 6 hours (14:53 pace) AND it said the 19.2 mile cutoff was 12:33....

Here's my BIGGEST mistake...it wasn't that I relied on the information given in the meeting. It wasn't that I didn't start us early. It wasn't that I didn't speed us up along the way. It wasn't that I didn't argue with the volunteer. It wasn't that I didn't find a way to sneak around the volunteer who told us to turn. It was that I didn't VERIFY the cutoff time. The information in the instruction email regarding the cutoff pace was wrong and that was clarified in the meeting...I should have clarified the cutoff time rather than just taking what was said without asking. That is on me.

Running out of cups and Gatorade...I blame the weather! :

At the end of the day I still love this race. I don't know if I'll do the marathon again, but most likely I will. I will just make sure I'm trained up enough to not get caught in the early/regular start delima. I'm also going to recommend that they have a 6 hour pacer/sweeper at the end of the regular start. That would have saved us.

Probably most important...this experience gave me some very good lessons learned for a potential early start option for Rocket City Marathon!!

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around. I know this was long...but so was the race! :D

When a Race Goes WRONG

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 22:10:00 +0000

Little Rock Marathon has this early start thing...if you are going to finish between 6 and 8 hours you start at 6am. If you are going to finish in under 6 hours you start at 8. Well...I was planning on a 5:45ish finish, but I was going to be running with a friend who was planning to run a PR marathon the day before at Snickers. She had not told her coach (not me) that she was going to do back-to-back marathons. I really wasn't sure what that might do to our race day. She assured me she was down to do whatever I wanted (early start and make it a 6-8 hour day or regular start and make it sub 6). I figured I would be good for a 5:45 on a good day but 6:15 on a bad day.

So I asked questions...

When I picked up my bib I went to the "Bless Your Heart" booth (so cute to call it that)....and asked for some details on the early start. I was told that the most crucial thing is that early starters MUST NOT pass the 6 hour pacer (who starts with the early starters) because that pace group "opens" the course. I said at some point the regular starters would pass that group. The lady said that wasn't until about mile 18...and at that point it would be fine to go ahead of the 6 hour pacers. So I thought an early start would probably be great-hold us back a bit early on and then after the hilly section (at about mile 19) we'd turn it on and finish sub 6 (even if not by much). The lady said it's really hard to hold back when you are fresh on the front half but I figured that might be the better option.

So a little while later I went to the early start meeting. (In order to be in the early start you have to have a special bib...I wanted to gather all the information before pulling that trigger.)

In the meeting they said if you were to join the early start you ARE NOT EVER allowed to pass the 6 hour pacer...even at the finish line...and if you had an early start bib but end with a sub 6 hour time you would be DQd. (This was NOT what I was told earlier, but the lady who told me this was in the room so I figured she was wrong since the RD was giving the information.)

Earlier in the week they had sent out written instructions. In that email it said the early start was for 6 hour or slower finishers and that the cutoff for the general start was 6 hours (must be faster than 14:53 pace).

From the instructions:

Well, a 6 hour pace is really like 13:40...so that question was asked in the meeting. They said basically they made a mistake in the instructions (I get it...instructions are copied from one year to the next and sometimes new information gets missed). They clarified and reiterated-slower than 6 hour finishers need to early start.

So I asked the question...if I'm having a good day I'll be 5:45. If I'm having a bad day it will be 6:15. Given the fact early starters are NEVER allowed to pass the 6 hour pacer (who starts early) I really wasn't sure if I should start early or at the regular time.

This is the CRUCIAL point in time where my race day plan was formed, and WHY my race went VERY WRONG....

They said there are 3 cutoff points but the first two are more for the half marathoners (therefore much slower than the full marathoners would need to be at that point in the race). The 3rd cutoff point was at mile 19.2. They said that is a HARD cutoff...if you miss that one you will be turned (cutting the race short for you). You'd still get to finish, you'd get a medal, but you would be DQd in the results.

They SAID that cutoff time of day was going to be 12:45. He said it was based off the 8 hour pacer (who starts early and is the last person to cross the early start line...then they add buffer time; he said it was based on an 18:18 pace...plus buffer time). I made a point to text that information to Dwayne to figure out the pace we'd have to have in order to make that cutoff point in time if we were to start at 8...

text to Dwayne

TriCalc app info

Based on that information, and talking with my friend, we decided we had plenty of time to make the 12:45 cutoff starting at 8 and we'd make sure we had a sub 6 hour finish.

Here's the thing about Little Rock-the first maybe 15 miles are mostly flat (flat-ish). Then there's a hill that is literally like a mile long--and NOT a gradual climb, and there are several hills after that until mile 19. But at mile 19 there's a LONG out and back that is super flat, there's one hill and then the finish. So you will likely lose time between 15 and 19 but you can make up a good bit of time from 19-26 if you have properly paced the first 15 and don't kill yourself on the hills. Armed with the 12;45 cutoff I figured we'd have no problems at all.

Well...I was right, but... (cue sinister music)

To Be Continued.... stick around for my race report....

When Expectations are Too High...

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 18:03:00 +0000

After Mercedes Half Marathon I planned to run the Cowtown Marathon in Ft Worth. I had heard so many great things about this race that I had built up my expectations for what it might be. The biggest expectation I had was for the medal. When I signed up there weren't any pictures of the medal on their website. Because of that I didn't sign up for the marathon, nor did I sign up for one of the extra races (5 or 10K) to make it a "challenge". The medals from their previous races that had really caught my eye were like giant charms of a cowboy hat, and a cowboy boot. I can't even express to you how much I wanted THESE medals. I would have paid extra for either of THESE medals.

See...when I say I run for the medal, I'm not joking. I LOVE really awesome medals. In ADDITION, I would like to have a great registration shirt, SWAG is nice and an interesting course is ranked among the top reasons I will do a race.

I was apprehensive when there was no photo of the medal at Cowtown, but I figured it had to be special given the boot and hat the years before...

I was WRONG. SO WRONG.

Cowtown apparently does "series" events where if you sign up for each year in the series you get a medal that fits into a series....this year was a puzzle piece. It had a photo of some iconic building on the course (I really didn't look too closely at it to even know what the building is...it's not special to me in any way). Getting more puzzle pieces is not NEARLY enough motivation for me to go back again in this series. To say I was disappointed is a SERIOUS understatement. That factor aside, the course was pretty fun. You run through the Stockyards and by the river and downtown. It's not flat but it wasn't soul-crushing hilly either.

Before starting I was looking at the finisher area map and saw a place where we were supposed to pick up our "Finisher jacket". As I was running in what had to be the hottest half marathon I've ever been in* I kept thinking "finisher jacket".

Let me take a side step here...back in 2019 when we were trying to figure out what we were going to give away at the Rocket City Marathon for our finisher gift we got a sample of a finisher jacket from a company called Leslie Jordan...it was a quarter zip jacket that is one of my all time favorite long sleeve running "shirts". It has a multi-colored bull on the front and it says "Cowtown Marathon" on the back. This is one of the first things that made me even look into Cowtown in the first place. We gave the same type of jacket away for our finisher gift that year based on how much I love that "shirt" (jacket? ...it's not really what I would call a jacket). Well....we also got a "rally jacket" sample from Cowtown that I had seen at several races. It's a "one size fits most" full zip hooded jacket with knit cuffs. It looks awesome, but it's really kind of what I call a "prop"...it looks good from afar, but it's not really impressive up close. It seems as though you wouldn't be able to wash it (I've never tried). I saw maybe 50-75 at the start line and the first mile as "throw aways"...items people will wear to a start line and then toss away. (Many races, ours included, will collect these items, wash them, and donate them to homeless shelters.) It's a fair amount of money to spend on a throw away item IMO.

Well...they did give a rally jacket...which I found myself being disappointed with. Not just because I had one already but because of my expectation was really high and I had already been let down by the puzzle piece medal. They did give a finisher shirt which I have worn a couple of times. It's a soft short sleeve shirt. It's a v-neck which I don't care for...I won't wear it out to advertise the race...honestly I thought their registration shirt was better than their finisher shirt....but that falls under "you can't please everyone".

I can't even tell you what their post-race food was like. I know they had ice cream sandwiches (couldn't eat them because of the dairy and gluten), fruit (standard bananas and tangerines) and beer (2 beers for a half marathoner) which I gave away and little bags of chips. Maybe that was different from pre-covid post-race food?

I left Ft Worth with an overall feeling of let down....except we LOVED the food (we ate BBQ twice and freakishly good tacos) and I did enjoy the course (I could have done without running on brick roads, but that's required in order to run through the Stockyards so it's a good trade!).

However, even saying I felt let down, I would certainly recommend the race with one little caveat...take your own gels. I went to the pre-race meeting where they told where aid stations would be and when Gu would be given...they did NOT have Gu where they said they would and I was NOT properly prepared because I trusted them to do what they said they would do. But, honestly, that alone isn't enough for me to not recommend doing a race.

My letdown was 100% a case of having expectations that were too high. The fact was they didn't advertise anything they didn't give (well, okay, they didn't have Gu where they said they would at the pre-race meeting....). Overall it was a fun race-TONS OF PEOPLE which is always fun. I think the very best part of the race was the finish...I was DRAINED by then (too little fuel and it was HOT)...for about the last .2 miles there were SO MANY spectators along the route I felt like I was running into the finish at Boston!!

Bottom line for me and the biggest lessons learned for our race is to clearly advertise what we are giving and then go above and beyond--under promise and over deliver. And, you can't go backwards-once you have some amazing thing (medal, finisher gift) you can't give some sub-standard thing!!

Thanks for stopping by and sticking around. Next up I'll tell you about how WRONG my race went at the Little Rock Marathon... :(

Can I Really Do This?

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 18:12:00 +0000

Four weeks (and one day) ago (January 16th) I "ran" the Louisiana Half Marathon. In the 13 weeks leading up to that half marathon I ran a total of about 42 miles with the longest run being about five miles on Christmas Eve and then it tapered WAY down after that. I was NOT trained (once again) for 13.1 miles, but I figured with a SEVEN HOUR cutoff I could practically crawl the whole thing and still make it to the finish.

I first saw this race back in 2019. They had a little video ad on Facebook that I clicked on...which of course caused me to see the ad ALL THE TIME! So in 2020 we went to work the expo....just before the whole world fell apart with Covid. I don't remember now why I didn't run that year, but I didn't. I remember I didn't run Mercedes and I "only" "ran" the Little Rock Half that year so my guess is I was even less trained then? This year I decided I wanted to run it since I had heard such great things about the course. Well...a few days before the race weekend they sent out an email about their "challenge"--called the Deja Voodoo...with an AWESOME medal. I resisted the urge to sign up for the 5k the day before the half knowing we would be working the expo all day Friday and Saturday...and knowing I was NOT trained. But at the expo I just couldn't stand it anymore-I signed up to run the 5K so I could get that awesome medal...

Well, the 5K was wonderful! The weather was really nice (it actually got hot toward the end), and I felt GREAT. I "ran" a 37:56 which I was very pleased with given the fact I was on my feet most of Friday and would be on them again all that day and then would "run" a half the next day. All that day I kept watching the weather....it was going to be COLD Sunday.

I HATE COLD!

On top of being cold, it was going to be about 15mph wind!

I honestly think if I had not signed up for the 5K in order to get the challenge medal I think I would have just skipped it. The medal for the 13.1 was nothing special. I felt like I had seen enough of how they did their race to learn some new things for Rocket City. And, we talked to hundreds of people at the expo. But...that challenge medal. I HAD TO HAVE IT! So Sunday morning, I bundled up and Dwayne drove me down to the start. I lined up toward the back knowing I was going to be slow. When the gun went off we slowly made our way to the actual start and then I started "jogging". I didn't have much of a plan (other than when I would take in fuel).

There were three main reasons I wanted to run this race.

1) I heard the course was awesome--it WAS. You run through the University of Louisiana campus, right by Death Valley and the Tiger Cage (he wasn't out-it was too cold), and you run by like forty-seven thousand lakes, and you run through some really nice neighborhoods. It was a nice course.

2) I like to see how other races do things to see if there's anything we can do better. I also like to listen to what I hear people talking about that is important to them. It might sound silly but everyone talks about portapotties---where are they and how long will it be until the next one. We do that VERY well IMO. We have signs telling you when they are coming up, and signs telling you how long before the next one. I also really liked their mile markers. We use flags and giant "stickers" on the ground. LAM uses these huge cardboard signs. I LOVED them so we are going to have to get them for our race. I also really loved their post race food. I didn't like that there were VERY limited choices for gluten-free vegans. I think we have done that fairly well, but we can do even better in the future.

3) I wanted to advertise for RCM. I made a shirt that said "Follow me to the Rocket City Marathon"...and I made a point to talk to anyone who commented, and a lot of people who were just open for a conversation. I saw a good friend of mine out there and had a lovely conversation with her. She is a heart attack survivor and is SO INSPIRING to me. She had a 100% blockage in her LAD (that's the artery they call the "widow maker" because if it's blocked the person usually dies very quickly...but she didn't...she didn't BECAUSE she is a marathoner...and she is 75 years old!!). I also had a lovely conversation with a lady who has run like 600 marathons!! We talked about how I am pushing HARD to have at least a 7 hour cutoff for RCM. In the past we simply didn't have that option, but where there's a will there's a way...

Before I knew it, I was on the home stretch, and just like that I was done 3:05:51. I was super pleased with that time. I could have finished a bit faster, but one of my main goals was to talk to people along the way which I did.

I was signed up to "run" the Mercedes Half just four weeks after LAM. The plan was to run a few times so I would be more ready...but after I got home I came down with a cold (or maybe it was Covid for the 2nd time?). I did "run" a few times...for a total of just over 3 miles. But, with a four-hour cutoff, I knew I would be fine even if I walked the whole thing.

I didn't look at the course (I knew it was hilly) and I didn't look at the weather (I knew it was going to be cold). But when I saw it was going to be below freezing with 10mph winds...once again, I contemplated dropping out.... except that MEDAL is awesome! (It's like a big ole Mercedes hood ornament!)

We worked the expo all day Friday and then went to dinner with our three Birmingham ambassadors/friends that night. We always have such a great time with them I hated to have to go home to get some sleep! But they had a shake out run the next morning, and we had to be at the expo at 8.

We worked the expo most of the day Saturday (we actually ended up leaving about an hour or so early because it trickled down to almost no people walking by. We had an early dinner then watched a movie at our AirBnB and then went to bed.

I woke up a little later than I had planned and put off going to the start until the last minute--it was COLD outside.

I HATE COLD!!!

When I got to the start and found my expected pace spot in the corral it was actually WARM with all the people smushed together. That was NICE.

It was strange-they didn't really have a gun or a countdown to start the race...being so far in the back, I didn't even really know they had started! But eventually we moved forward and just like that I had crossed the start line and I was jogging.

The first thing I noticed was a HUGE BOULDER in my shoe! (Okay, it was a tiny rock...okay maybe more like a GIANT grain of sand!) It was noticeable enough I had to stop and clear it out before I could continue on. I thought I heard a friend's voice pass by but I wasn't sure since I was trying to get my shoe back on as fast as possible!

When I started "running" again I met up with four friends from Huntsville! One of them was the gal I ran my very first marathon with in 2011!! They told me they were going to be doing 3/1 intervals and I was welcome to join them. I thought I might be with them a mile at the most and then I was going to have to tell them to leave me...but one mile turned into 2, which turned into 4 then 8 then 13.... It's been a LONG time since I've run that far with anyone. It was MAGICAL!!

Don't get me wrong-I was TIRED and there were times I was hurting. That is a FREAKISHLY hilly course (not Knoxville hilly, but HILLY). At one point I had to use the bathroom. It felt like MILES AND MILES before I finally saw a potty---but quickly realized it was NOT there for the race. It must have been an abandoned potty that homeless people use...YUCK. A few miles later I saw another one and "sprinted" to it as fast as I could...only to have to wait for a guy to finish up...only to have to wait until a volunteer could fetch me some toilet paper ((NOTE: DO NOT LET THE POTTIES RUN OUT OF PAPER!!)). When I came out I was afraid my posse had left me...but I saw them walking so I ran as hard as I could to catch up to them.

At the very end of the race I was DONE and could no longer hang on to them so I fell way off the last .1 or so. I ended up with a 2:34 finish time!! I was FLOORED with that time!!! No way I could have/would have done that alone!! It reminded me how fun it is to run with people!

I think more than that it reminded me that I'm stronger than I realize I am.

I have made a decision to actually start training....well...after Cowtown Half (which is 2 weeks from yesterday), and Little Rock Full (which is the very next week)...and after a little bit of recovery.

I can do this!

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around!

I Believe, Help My Unbelief

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 11:09:00 +0000

Most of you who know me in person know that I am "in recovery/remission" from Autoimmune Encephalopathy (basically autoimmune brain disease-my body attacked my brain). When I look back I think there were some signs of symptoms for a while before it really blew up in the late fall of 2015.

I was treated with high-dose IV steroids for a little over a year. With autoimmune conditions they don't ever say you're "cured" because there isn't a cure. They treat symptoms. Sometimes that treatment is a burst of treatment until the symptoms are under control and then you just wait for a "flare" to happen (or not). Sometimes people have to stay on immunosuppressants long term to keep their immune system "under control". Either way traditional western medicine doctors pretty much say "we don't know what causes the body to attack itself...let us know when you flare and we'll treat again".

I did not like that answer. Both the disease and the treatment really ravaged my body. I lost tons of hair, I gained A LOT of weight (that I'm still trying to lose), and I lost all my fitness (that I'm still trying to regain).

I dove deep into the world of Functional Nutrition to search for answers. (As deep as my mind and my time allowed.)

One thing that most (if not all) Functional Nutrition Practitioners agree on is that most (if not all) disease starts in the gut. Sure, there is a genetic component and a (HUGE) stress component, but those can be mitigated or inflamed by what we put into our bodies. I believe this wholeheartedly.

And yet...I am STRUGGLING mightily with my diet right now. When I get stressed I just want to eat all the food that I "know" is not best for my body. 

But here's the thing--I KNOW it when I stop eating these foods and I feel SO MUCH BETTER. I "know" it when I'm wanting those foods and I decide that maybe I'm wrong and what I think I "know" is really probably not true.

Let me say that again...when I'm not eating gluten, dairy, and sugar and when I am eating a WFPB (whole food plant based) diet I feel SO MUCH BETTER. My mood is good. I'm not anxious. I sleep well. My skin looks good. I have energy. I am more adaptable to change. I think more clearly. My body feels better. I have much better workouts. My resting heart rate is lower. My stomach isn't bloated and distended. I don't have sinus issues, headaches or body/joint aches. I recover faster.

When I am eating gluten, dairy, and sugar my joints get swollen. I suffer from tendonitis. I ache. My anxiety ramps WAY up. I have a hairpin anger trigger. I cuss uncontrollably. I'm EXHAUSTED and I can't sleep. I'm VERY IRRITABLE. My resting heart rate is 10-20 beats higher. I feel sluggish. My workouts suffer (or I don't work out at all). My skin gets super dry. My hair falls out. I have TERRIBLE headaches. My eyesight suffers. Maybe worst of all my brain doesn't function as well. And I'm TERRIFIED I will end up like I was in 2015/2016--with an almost non-functioning brain.

You might be asking "then why would you ever eat gluten, dairy, and sugar"? Uhm...have you TASTED gluten, dairy, and sugar? To be clear, they typically all go hand-in-hand. The absolute WORST thing for me to eat is pizza followed by something sugary, washed down with some kind of alcohol. But when I get stressed out that's exactly what I WANT.

To make it worse my husband LOVES these things and he is all about giving me what I WANT. We have had MANY a discussion over this very topic. I think I'd love nothing more than for him to be a health nut who would say "no, we are not going to get pizza...we are going to roast some yummy veggies instead and then we are going to go for a walk". Instead he says "what do you want" and when I say "pizza" he says "okay". Sometimes when I say "let's get a rotisserie chicken and veggies" he'll say okay, oftentimes he says "okay you can get that, I'm going to get a pizza".

Don't get me wrong...I am NOT blaming him. My desire for these foods is STRONG when I'm stressed. Or maybe when I'm eating these foods I get stressed more easily and that makes me crave these foods more. Either way the outcome is a downward spiral.

If you know me you know I'm always doing something...at least I was pre-covid. In my normal life I direct several kids races through the summer, I train kids and adults in triathlon and running, I train (at least I try to...it's been so long since I really trained I don't know if I can still claim it!), I am constantly learning something, I teach Spin at the Y, I have friends I try to stay connected with, and my husband and I direct the Rocket City Marathon...a race we have been trying to grow so we put A LOT of time and effort into it. Then Covid happened. I know it's been a major disruptor for everyone. Because of Covid the stresses of directing the marathon grew exponentially for a lot of reasons I won't bore you with. But I mention it because the race is in exactly ONE WEEK.

To say my stress level is high is like saying the universe is big. To make matters worse because I'm so busy I end up "forgetting" to eat which then causes me to crave all the worst foods (no one craves broccoli when they are super hungry!). To make things even worse I don't have a ton of time to cook well so we end up "just grabbing something" more often than not (there are no fast food health restaurants).

I think they say the first step in breaking a bad habit (addiction) is to admit there's a problem. 

I have a problem.

Before you suggest it, I have actually been to an Overeaters Annonymous meeting (more than one actually) before. And maybe that's right where I belong. I'm not entirely sure. But if so, it's going to be very hard for me to work the steps living with another person who has the same eating habits I'm desperately trying to break. I don't think I would care quite as much if the only issue with eating unhealthy-for-me food is that it makes me gain weight. I think I could live with the extra pounds I have right now. I don't like it, but it's not the main reason I need to change what I'm putting into my body.

Allow me to reiterate: When I'm eating gluten, dairy and sugar my joints get swollen. I suffer from tendonitis. I ache. My anxiety ramps WAY up. I have a hairpin anger trigger. I cuss uncontrollably. I'm EXHAUSTED and I can't sleep. I'm VERY IRRITABLE. My resting heart rate is 10-20 beats higher. I feel sluggish. My workouts suffer (or I don't work out at all). My skin gets super dry. My hair falls out. I have TERRIBLE headaches. My eyesight suffers. Maybe worst of all my brain doesn't function as well. And I'm TERRIFIED I will end up like I was in 2015/2016--with an almost non-functioning brain.

I have decent resolve when I wake up in the morning with a food hangover. But by mid-morning I'm jonesing for pancakes and chocolate milk! (And I ain't talking about gluten free pancakes with fruit and chocolate almond milk!)

My husband and I have talked about "cleaning up our diet" after the race is over...but, well, that's just before Christmas so that's not the best time to give up all the yummy food we WANT, so we'll do it after the first of the year. But my whole thing is WHY WAIT? Why not now?

And, to be clear, for me it's not about "all things in moderation". It's really not. Even a little bit sets me off. I think it's very much like an alcoholic who simply can NOT drink even a drop. The difference is I still have to eat food to live. And it's really NOT easy to not eat gluten, dairy and sugar.

But somehow I have to.

Starting TODAY. This day. Right now. 

I just have to make it happen. I truly WANT to feel better more than I WANT to eat gluten, dairy and sugar. At least that's how I feel in this moment.

It usually takes about 36 hours for me to start physically feeling better, and about 30 days for the cravings to subside and for my mindset to change. The hardest part will be the next 8 days. But I'm writing this and will make it public so that I can officially put my stake in the ground.

Several years ago my nephew, who I barely knew, overdosed on drugs and died. He used that night with his brother who lived. My other nephew, who I barely know, fought addiction for several more years but he has now turned his life around. I want to turn my life around.

I know it sounds like I'm being melodramatic but I'm really not...people with AE can have seizures, go into a coma and die. And I have been having flares lately. My hand shakes, my head shakes, I'm having some issues with thought processing, my anxiety has been off the charts, my head is pounding most of the time, my eyesight has been really bad, I have had terrible insomnia...these were all precursors to not being able to find my way out of my car and getting lost at the YMCA I had been going to for 5 years at the time. You might think I would have "turned my life around" when I was at that low point. 

I started to say I didn't know it was my diet that caused the trouble. That would be a lie. I did "know" I just didn't KNOW. I didn't accept it. I didn't live it every day even when it was hard.

Most people can enjoy alcohol...true alcoholics can't. 

Some addictions are more socially acceptable than others. Some are hidden; some are more outward-facing.

According to this article the five characteristics of addictive behavior are:
An inability to stop
Changes in mood, appetite, and sleep
Continuing despite negative consequences
Denial
Engaging in risky behaviors
Feeling preoccupied with the substance or behavior
I think those all fit. I don't think the Overeaters Anonymous definition fits. Just like everything else, I don't think I fit neatly into a mold. But I know I need to break the one I'm in.

Thanks for stopping by and sticking around.

I am a Boston Marathoner

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 15:22:00 +0000

I have put off writing about my last "event" for a couple of reasons. First of all after I finished it I've been either crazy busy or sick. But more than that I've had a very hard time "processing" all that went into completing the event and all the emotions it stirred up for me.

I should have put a spoiler alert before the title...in case you didn't guess it, the last event I completed was the (Virtual) Boston Marathon.

Back in April I found out the Boston Marathon was going to have a hybrid event this year (part virtual and part in person). They were opening up registration to ANYONE for the virtual event so I decided I wanted to register!

Let me back up just a half-step. I'm guessing everyone knows Boston Marathon is a race that you either have to qualify for with a VERY fast time at a qualifying marathon, or you have to be a fundraiser to get one of the few "charity" slots. But this year I was going to be able to get a coveted unicorn medal by completing the marathon distance on Boston Marathon weekend and submitting my time.

I ~~conned~~ convinced a friend to register with me and then, because she and I both love to travel we decided it would be super cool to run our virtual race ON the actual course! I reached out to a friend of ours who is one of the key coordinators for the marathon and asked if running on the course was even possible. He not only said yes, but he also offered one "non-qualifying" slot for the race. Since I had ~~conned~~ convinced my friend to register for the virtual I graciously let Dwayne take advantage of the actual race entry. And then we starting making our plans to go to Boston!

The following month I (shockingly) completed IMChoo 70.3. (Side note: I just realized that I never completed my in depth race recap but instead stopped with the bike portion of the race...I'll have to go back to that at some point but the reason I didn't complete that recap is similar to why I've had such a hard time completing this one...)

After registering for the Virtual Boston Marathon, I joined a FaceBook group with other virtual participants and quickly realized I was in the minority regarding one fairly big "issue".

I was unwilling to call myself a Boston Marathoner in any way. I wasn't going to say "I'm training to run the Boston Marathon". I also wouldn't buy any Boston Marathon gear, and certainly not a "celebration jacket". While others were excited to be participating in the "Boston Marathon" I refused to see it from that perspective. I was simply participating in a virtual marathon...granted I was going to run the actual course, but it still was NOT the same thing.

Boston IS exclusive. It's not a lottery system where you just apply to get a slot and they randomly draw names. You have to QUALIFY. And, in the last several years, just running a "qualifying time" hasn't been good enough to get a slot. Let's say they are letting in 50K runners to the event. They will open registration first for runners who bested their qualifying time by say 10 minutes. Then they will open if for runners who beat their time by say 5 minutes... If all the slots are filled then they shut down registration. So in order to really guarantee a slot, you would have to run MUCH faster than just a BQ time (or raise a lot of money for charity).

I like it that way. I think it makes Boston special. It gives marathoners something to strive for, something to work to acheive. It's not just random luck. You are either working hard to run and race fast, or you are working hard to raise a lot of money for a charity. There are, however, a lot of people who don't agree with that process. There were a lot of people on that group page that expressed a thought process completely opposite (basically anyone should get to run Boston). My thoughts put me in the minority (at least in relationship to the vocal people on that page).

Training for me was not going as well as I wanted it to go. I had been battling low iron and switching thyroid meds around the time of my 70.3. Then, we got to go out to Colorado Springs in August/September for six weeks thanks to Dwayne's job. That was WONDERFUL but it also meant I was sort of starting from scratch with training since we'd be at altitude. I told my friend I wouldn't be able to keep up with her pace and that I would likely have to walk most of the distance.

But then something wonderful happened. My training got solid at the end of that 6 weeks! I walk/ran 9.5 miles our final weekend there and then when we got back I did something I haven't done in like 6 years...I ran a solid 3.5 miles without walking!!!!

But...let's be clear, 9.5 miles of walk/running and 3.5 miles of solid running is NOT solid marathon training. But we got home about 2 weeks befor Boston Weekend. It was pretty much all I was going to get.

Let me just say if ANYONE ever asks me if they should try to complete a marathon with 9.5 miles as their longest run I will say no. At the same time, I've completed several marathons, 3 50Ks, 3 70.3s and 2 Ironmans. I do understand endurance events. And I do understand my body. I knew I could walk the 26.2 miles if I needed to and I knew I wasn't going to risk injury. So instead of backing out I set out to get my virtual medal on Saturday morning of Boston Weekend. (My friend had to back out of going for a number of reasons so it was just me and all the other virtual runners who were running the course on Saturday (I had a friend who came from North Carolina with a friend of hers but I figured they would be running much faster than I was going to be able to go so I didn't even try to stay with them).

The Boston course is point-to-point and pretty much downhill the whole way...except for the infamous "Newton Hills" that start about mile 19ish. Those hills culminate with "Heartbreak Hill". Even the downhill sections have little rollers along the way, but it's generally an easy downhill slope most of the way.

Just being out there was AMAZING! The people of Boston and the surrounding towns are unlike any I have experienced in big cities. They are warm and welcoming and just NICE. The race was celebrating it's 125th running!!! I think because of that people have embraced the race as part of their culture. Cars went out of their way to give runners room! People honked encouragement instead of irritation (you could tell because they would wave and smile or roll their windows down to cheer!).

The plan was that Dwayne would be my rolling aid station, leap frogging me along the way with water and Maurten gels. I starting getting nervous when I didn't see him at mile 2, then 3. But then about mile 4 I saw him! And then like clockwork about every 2-3 miles he was there! I saw maybe 100 other runners out there doing the same thing I was doing. And there were a few spectators out there watching their people, cheering us all on.

But, it never entered my mind that I was running "THE Boston Marathon"...I was running the Boston course...but not the actual marathon.

I was running MUCH stronger than I had any right to run. I finished MUCH stronger than I had any right to finish with a time of 5:47. That's my fastest marathon since having brain disease, on MUCH less training. I was depleted at the end but it was one of those moments that I was in shock at what I had just accomplished.

But I didn't think for one second "I'm a Boston Marathoner"...I thought "I just ran 26.7 miles* on the Boston Marathon course and finished a virtual marathon. (When you run the actual course you get to run on the roads. As a person "just" running the course it was a longer distance between the start and finish lines-that shows the importance of running tangents!) I did immediately go buy a "celebration jacket" to celebrate what I had just accomplished but my intention was to have "Virtual Finisher" embroidered on it just so there was no confusion that I did not in fact run the actual Boston Marathon.

The following Monday Dwayne ran the actual race and, while he didn't meet his personal goal, he did well...and ended up spending about 90 minutes in medical afterward (depleted of electrolytes and a bit under-hydrated). He was a Boston Marathoner...I was not.

Following that amazing weekend there was a little "debate" on the FB group about this very sort of thing. People were calling themselves "Boston Marathoners" and wearing their jackets proudly. I (and a few other likeminded vocal individuals) countered that thought process. I basically said earlier in this post...Boston IS special. Boson finishers ARE special. We, as virtual finishers, aren't THAT. We are different. I made a post about it on the page, explaining why I was going to "alter" my jacket, expecting to be pounced on.

Instead, an interesting thing happened. Some people agreed with me, but the ones who didn't (mostly) explained to me why they felt like I was wrong. To them Boston welcomed us in as part of the family. Moreover, they said, Boston is a spirit more than a race. Sure, in every previous year the only runners able to run the race were either fast or fundraisers, but this year the BAA opened it's doors and let in the "commoner". Me altering my jacket to specify "VIRTUAL FINISHER" was a way for me to segregate myself away from the "real" Boston finishers. To segregate myself was me saying I'm not good enough not them saying I wasn't welcome.

I chewed on that for a while and then refocused on other things...life got busy and then I got Covid. I had a "mild" case but I was still in the bed for about a week. And then I had what the doctors think was either a kidney stone or an infection, or both. (I'm still dealing with this actually.)

Saturday I got a box from the BAA with my virtual medal and a post card... as I started to read the card I broke down into uncontrollable sobs...

Did you see that?

"Dear Boston Marathoner"

I am part of the family. I'm not a step child. I'm not a third cousin. I'm not an interloper. In the eyes of the BAA, I'm a Boston Marathoner. They are the ones who get to decide; it's their race after all. Or is it? Maybe they recognize that this race is bigger than any entity. Boston signifies the spirit of the marathoner: perseverance, dedication, endurance...

I am a Boston Marathoner. I will celebrate by wearing my jacket with pride!

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around!