Envirun 5K

The weather here has been less than stellar lately and I am getting cabin fever in a serious way...maybe the worst I have ever been.  So when the weather people said it was going to rain, a lot, and be super crazy windy all weekend I was totally bummed.  I had planned to do the Envirun 5K up at Niagara Falls and I was planning to take Asher up there and we would do our long run on the trails up there before and after the race.  "Torrential" rain postponed this.  So I started out on the treadmill and was deciding about the race.  Well I got to 8 miles and said "I'm going"!  That was enough of the treadmill for me.  So I headed to Niagara Falls for the race.  Jeff came along too and I was glad he did.  It took me longer to get there than I had planned (the story of my life) and I got to the race about 5 minutes before the start and I still had to check in and get my bib (no chips at this one).  I jumped out of the car, he went and parked and I picked up my stuff.  I even started the race with my race shirt in my pocket and shorts and pants on because I didn't have time to take my pants off before the race.  As I was leaving the registration tent they radioed to the start that the last person checked in...yep...nice AJ.  I got to the start and we were off.  The race went around Goat Island and we got to run by the rivers that lead into all three of the falls.  Super cool.  I love this place.  We got to run 1/2 mile into a nasty head wind but then cruised back.  And the rain stopped for the race, how awesome is that!!  Good race and I hope to be back next year in the sunshine with my pooch! (Thanks to Jeff for the pictures.)

Me at the finish, holding my bib because I didn't have time to put in on before the race. 

American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls

 

Horseshoe Falls

Naples

Last Friday, Jan 14-Monday Jan 17th I went to Naples, FL for a long weekend.  I went for many reasons but the big ones were to run the Naples News Half Marathon with Mark, to see Mark, Sue and Mark's dad Jim (which is where we stayed) and to see my Godfather Brent and see his house and hang with him for a day.  So needless to say, lots of really good reasons to go to Florida in January.  Oh yeah, and because Florida is the only state without snow and here in Buffalo it's always snowing, everyday, sometimes multiple times in a day.  I didn't take my shorts off the whole trip!  It was awesome.  

I flew in early Friday morning and Brent picked me up at the airport.  One slight miss-hap getting off the plane.  A person on our plane couldn't wait 3 hours to smoke and was caught smoking in the bathroom on the plane.  So a man in a haz-mat suit had to check out the plane and the police and eventually the FBI had to have a fun visit with this man.  Federal offense.  Dumb idea.  Anyway.  Other than that the flight was great.  I highly recommend Jet Blue to fly with.  Brent and I headed to his house, I met his friend Jim and then we headed to the beach.  And oh was the beach beautiful.  White sand, lots of shells to pick, beautiful (but cold) water. 

Back of Brent's house

Barefoot Beach (Gulf of Mexico)

Shells

Barefoot Beach

Beautiful

We did a little more sightseeing and then headed to Jim's house.  Where I met this pretty lady.  Trudy.  Trudy and I became good friends over the few days I was there.  She's a sweetie.

Trudy

Saturday Mark and I went running, in shorts, and then went and picked up our packets and did a little sightseeing. After lunch we hit the beach.

Beach with Condos in the distance

More condos in a pass

Beach

Pelican

Sunday was the race.  Mark and I ran together, both with colds but we made it.  It was funny to see all the natives there with jackets and long sleeves and even some gloves and hats.  Mark and I had on sleeveless shirts and shorts.  Funny!  The race was very well run, there were about 2,000 runners and the course weaves though the "high rent district" of Naples.  Some major money where we ran.  Beautiful homes.  We even had a priest bless us, twice, on the race course.  A very nice race and one we hope to do again and hopefully feel better.  The rest of the day we just relaxed at the beach. 

Monday, Mark and I went running on the beach.  Past some beautiful beach homes.

And picked some shells.  It rained pretty much the rest of the day so we did a little shopping and hit the Naples Pier.  This pier has been rebuilt year after year when it gets knocked out from a hurricane.  We also saw some people wind surfing since there were actually waves.  Cool stuff!

Wind Surfing

Naples Pier

Naples Pier

And a great way to end the trip.  A rainbow over the lake outside Jim's house.  (On the left is a key lime tree.  Awesome key lime pie was made as well!)

YMCA Turkey Trot

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Yesterday I did a traditional Turkey Trot.  In fact, this was the 115th annual turkey trot, here in Buffalo, NY.   This is the oldest consecutive running road race in North America.  This year they capped the race at 12,500 and it filled a couple weeks ago.  This was a 5 mile race starting north of downtown and you run into down town.  As I usually do, I ran before the race with Asher.  This has been our traditional for as long as I've had Asher.  He usually doesn't get to do the race but I still want him to be a part of the day so I run first with him.  I got changed and we headed to the race.  It was supposed to rain and was very windy.  I had shorts on but there weren't many to brave the bare legs.  We got lined up and the gun went off.  It took us 5 1/2 minutes to get to the start line.  Apparently we lined up pretty far back.  I spent pretty much the whole race running around people.  The race went well.  I felt awesome and had fun.  There were several people dressed up in costumes.  It was fun seeing all the costumes and running along a road I had never run on before.  I got close to the finish, picked up the pace the last two miles and kept passing people.  Got to the finish and headed back to find Jeff.  I found him at mile 4 and ran the rest of the way to the finish with him.  It was just misting but really turned out to be a perfect day to run.  Felt great, awesome company, great run.  Overall a great way to spend Thanksgiving.

Fox Cities Half Marathon

So people ask, "what's up next after Ironman?"....well how about a half marathon a week later?!?!  Crazy??  Yes!  But I have a very persuasive running partner, Mark, and it sounded like a good idea while eating custard at Zesty's! And as it turned out, it was a good idea.  We signed up for the Fox Cities Half Marathon before Ironman so I was optimistic that I would have a good race and come out of it unscathed and recover well.  The week after Ironman was good.  I took it easy.  Did some swimming, biking and ran 1 day.  And tons of walking with Asher.  I had no soreness and was ready to roll Sunday morning.  Mark's friend Walter was also running, doing his first half.  He is signed up to do Big Sur with us next May as his first marathon. 

The morning of Tammy, Cleo, Jeff and I all drove down and got a car at the finish and start (the start and finish aren't in the same spot) and met up with Mark and Walt.  Sue came to the start and took our coats and then brought them to us at the finish.  That was a total life saver.  It was cool, low 40's at the start and it got cool after we finish and were sweaty.  We gave Sue our coats and literally ran across the start line.  We were moving along nicely, and all of a sudden we run into a friend of ours, Brian Cassidy.....well actually he ran into me.  Funny.  Ran with him for a bit and chatted then another friend of ours, Julie Petersen came up to us and ran with us.  Awesome, lots of cool people.  So we kept on.  I was feeling good and having fun catching up with everyone.  I ran the rest of the race with Walt, Mark and Julie.  The 4 amigo's.  This course is nice and flat with lots of turns and stuff to keep you entertained.  The last couple miles had some good tunes blasting which really pumped us up.  We went past mile 12 and started the loop for the finish.  Feeling good we ran strong into the finish for a 1:57:24 finish time.  And Mark and I finally got it worked out and had the same exact time.  It was our last race together for a while so it was nice to share the experience with him and so glad he slowed down to run with me. 

The rest of the crew had a good day too.  Tammy and Cleo smoked it....like normal and Jeff rolled in with a 4 minute PR.  Everyone had a great day.  Beautiful weather, fun race and great company.  What more could you ask for.  Happy running everyone!

Ironman Wisconsin 2010

Swim 2.4 miles, Bike 112 miles, Run 26.2 miles

This year’s Ironman Wisconsin was to be my 4th attempt at the Ironman distance and my third try at the Ironman Wisconsin course. I completed the race in 2005, 2007 and Ironman Louisville in 2008. It had been a few years since I had been at this venue and had some pretty vivid memories of the last time, and some pretty nasty scares to remind me of those memories.

Ironman 2007

Ironman 2007

Because of this “history” on this course I was very nervous going into the day. I was also nervous because this is an Ironman, and that’s big stuff. You know you are going to go through a rough patch and that always scares me. When will it come, can I overcome it and get back on my game, and ultimately, will I finish? On the walk down to the terrace race morning I met up with a few friends and about lost it just talking to them I was so nervous. And if you know me, you know I don’t cry…..for anything….so this was pretty big.

I have had a lot going on in my personal life this year as well, unfortunately not making Ironman the main thing on the brain this year, which when I signed up for it, I fully intended it to be. So I hoped my training was adequate to get me across that line. My race season went pretty poorly this year. I had a bad race at high cliff and then changed a few things. Mike said he would coach me which helped a lot. Door County went better but still not where I wanted to be. So Ironman had no expectations, expect try and get under an hour for the swim and to finish.

Pre-Race

Got up early, actually slept good, which is a huge miracle for me because I never sleep good, ate and headed down to the terrace. On the way I dropped off my Special Needs bags and ran into Randi and Ross. They were doing their first Ironman. Very exciting. Got body marked and headed in to give Griff some TLC before his big day. Touched up my T1 and T2 bags and then had over an hour to chill before the start. I walked down the helix and sat and tried to relax. The time came to put on my wetsuit and get this party started. I saw lots of people I knew walking down.

Erik and I before the swim start.  Check out his shirt.  A "mock up" to the 2007 family shirts.  Awesome!

Jeff and I before the swim start

I am usually pretty anti-social before the race. I like to spend the energy getting my head right for the day. I got all ready and headed for the swim start. There was a large mass of people that had to get in the water and the time was ticking away and they weren’t moving. I eventually started pushing my way through the mod. That was fine that they wanted to be in the back and not get in the water, but I wanted to be in the front and I wanted to get in the water.

Athletes getting in the water

Finally got in the water with about 3 minutes to spare. Swam up to the front, not as far towards the buoy line as I had hoped, and found a spot with no one on the front. Perfect. Got my goggles set and the cannon went off.

Swim

The first part of the swim was pretty clean, really no roughhousing to speak of. I started angling over to the buoy line and then it got a bit dicey. The men had red caps and the women white so I could see what gender was constantly smacking me and beating me up. And not swimming in a straight line cutting me off. Got real tired of all that real fast. The men are relentless in the swim, no question. I started getting aggressive and pushed them out of the way. The corners were tough, lots of fighting there. But I made it around the first two turns and got into my groove. I kept getting a few chops and figured out it was from the other swimmers creating waves. Otherwise the water was as calm as glass. Got around the first 1.2 miles and headed for lap two. I was checking out the Terrace on both laps, so cool to see so many people out and cheering. My nerves were settling down and I was excited for the day. After I turned the second corner and headed down the long back stretch I started passing people on their first loop, me on my second. Some were doing the sidestroke, some the breastroke, some resting on kayaks, crazy stuff. I dodged them and kept in my rhythm. A couple times I saw some white caps come into my view and I was determined not to let them pass me so I would pick up the pace until they were out of sight. Turned the last corner and headed for the finish. I felt really good and strong the whole swim. Came out of the water in 58:10. A new PR on the swim.

T1

Got my wetsuit taken off by the strippers and headed up the helix….in my bare feet. I have very sensitive feet so I was not looking forward to this part. Plus the water temp was 67 degrees so my feet were cold running on the concrete. Not fun. They were sore by the time I got to the top. Headed in the Terrace and got all my bike gear on. Shoes in hand headed out to get Griff. The lady giving me my bike didn’t do a stellar job, she went to take Griff off the rack and knocked both my bottles off the back onto the ground. Oh well, picked ‘em up and headed out. Waved at my parents as I went by them. Shoes on and down the helix. Yelled at Mike as I left the Terrace and I was on my way for my, hopefully safe, 112 mile journey. T1: 10:05.

Bike

Headed down John Nolan, past the point of 2007’s debacle and onto the no passing zone. Already people were getting pushy and it was early. Lost both of my bottles in the back within the first 3 miles. Something to fix for next year. Made it safely through the early miles. I was pretty timid here and definitely took my time. We were now on our way to Verona, hit the first aid station to replenish what I lost and were now on the loop. I cruised through to Mount Horeb. The section from Verona to Mount Horeb is incredibly boring to me. I dread this part….twice. When I got to Mount Horeb I stopped at the aid station to take off my extra shirt I wore out of the swim. I didn’t want to get cold on the first part of the bike so I bought a long sleeve shirt on Saturday to wear until I was warm enough and then throw it. This worked out great. After Mount Horeb I was on my way. Saw Gordy and Linda and headed onto Garfoot Road and the hills. There are some hilly roads between Mount Horeb and Cross Plains that I had to tackle. I was worried about these but when I got to them on race day they weren’t bad at all. I put my gearing in a super easy gear and just tapped up the hills. Passing tons of guys. The guys were jerks all day. They would fly past me to pass me either too close next to me or cut over right in front of me after they passed me and I would have to yell at them. Then I would pass them on the hills because they were slow and they would get mad because a girl passed them and then be jerks back and pass me too close. It was a battle all day. So rude and annoying. I also ran across lots of people riding in packs. Dumb people. Ride your own race. Wimps! Anyway, through the hills no problem, through the technical stuff before Cross Plains and I cruise into Cross Plains. Jeff and my parents were there so I gave them a big wave and was on to the hilly part of the course. Between Cross Plains and Verona there are 3 large climbs, a long windy one, one we call the Lance hill because it is lined with people at least two to three deep on each side and another windy one but this one is shorter and steeper than the first. Got up the first with no problem, now onto the Lance hill (which is right after the first one). I get into my easy gear and just tap up the hill. Saw several people here I knew. Passed some more guys. Now down a huge decent, someone yelling my name, then onto the last big hill. Tap up that and I’m on my way into Verona. Stop at the aid station and then through the huge festival they have. That part is so fun. You get a huge adrenaline rush. Tons of people, music, all really cool stuff. Saw Jeff, my parents and Jeff Z and Mary here. Skip special needs and head out for loop 2. I was feeling good. My neck was getting a bit tight so I needed to make sure I was relaxing. Onto Mount Horeb (made it through the boring part), onto the Garfoot hills, through the technical parts (I saw someone getting hauled off on a stretcher here, must have crashed on one of the technical turns) and onto Cross Plains. Quick stop at the aid station, saw Jeff and then onto the three hills again. The hills on loop two went just as well as loop one. The whole ride I was spinning up the hills, passing the guys. Made it to Verona, saw my parents and Jeff again and headed on home. My neck was getting pretty sore at this point but my legs felt good so I knew I just needed to stay aero and once I got off the bike my neck would be fine. On the stick there is one large hill, made it up that with no problem and headed back into Madison. I was following some girl the last 10 miles or so and I would pass her then she would pass me back and so on. She was caked in salt and looked terrible. She was all over the road so eventually I just stayed back and let her do her thing. If she was going to do something stupid I didn’t want to be a part of that. Up the helix and into T2. I really tried to just let the course come to me, bike within myself and I think I did that. I also ate more calories per hour than I ever have before on the bike. I think that worked out well too. Bike time was 6:16:21. This was a PR for me on this course.

T2

It was nice to get my bike shoes off. I was getting hot spots on my feet so I was ready to get those off. Some girl came into the change area barely able to walk. Not sure how the marathon went for her. She looked rough. Got all changed, stretched my piriformis and was ready to go. I told my change tent lady I wanted to run the whole marathon, which was a goal from day 1, so here I go! T2: 7:10

Run

Got out of T2 and headed up towards the capital. Saw my mom, said hi and kept on rolling. Saw Erik at the first aid station and I got some ice in my handheld bottle (I wanted mixed berry Powerbar drink but they only had Orange Mango….yuck….which I eventually had to settle on….double yuck). My mom then came racing around the capital and we talked again. I said my hamstrings feel a bit tight but I’m just going to take it easy and see how it feels, and keep running. Headed out and was running strong….actually too fast. I kept trying to slow myself down but I felt good. I would walk through the aid stations and run in between. Ran into Jeff on his bike about mile 2 and he followed me for a bit. Through Camp Randall, which was boring…no music, no excitement, nothing. Lambeau is much better to run through. Kept on running. I was also walking the hills. My hamstrings wanted nothing to do with the hills. Saw Mike and Sue around mile 4.5 or so. I asked if he had any new hamstrings for me and all I got back was a bunch of super encouraging words….but I wanted hamstrings…oh well. I’ll take the encouraging positive words and head out. On to the State Street turn around. This place is hopping. Tons of people here and the water station before and after is always bumping. Came through here about 1:08 or so and thought my goal of under 5 for the marathon was do-able. Saw Ivy, chatted with her and I was back out. Was with Jeff on his bike, then we picked up my mom on her bike, past Mike and Sue again and headed back towards the terrace for the turn around. I was doing okay until about mile 10, then I started breaking down. The next few miles were ugly. I met Erik again at the mile 13 water station and almost started crying. My hamstrings hurt, my hip was bothering me, my foot hurt, the drink tasted terrible, I didn’t want any calories, it was lots of negative and it just consumed me. Erik said they would grab their bikes and get me to the finish. So now I had 5 people on bikes someplace on the course. Maybe that would help. I ran up, did the turnaround (which is steps from the finish, total mental thing happening there) and headed back out. Mile 14 was good, but then the next three miles were ugly again. About mile 18 I started getting my shit together. I looked at my watch and figured out I need to do this. I was still walking the aid stations and running in between but the walking at the aid stations got longer and longer. It actually felt better to run so I kept telling myself that. My whole body was sore and tired and I just had nothing left but I had to keep going. My friend Randi passed me totally trucking with about 7.5 miles left and I could not even closely match her pace. She looked awesome. She had such a great day! So happy for her and Ross for completing their first Ironman. I made the State Street turn around and headed back. Did this crappy out and back section and got my message from Jeff at the Ford Motivational Mile....."Leave it all on course" (25 character limit)....I did that...believe me!  This section is not fun, it’s boring, and rather pointless but the distance matters. Saw Mike again (Jeff was also with me on his bike). Mike was so supportive the whole run. He asked me if I wanted any gum and I said “NO, I have some”. I think I kind of yelled at him which I didn’t mean to do but I just wanted to be done. 4 miles left. Keep on it. Headed back downtown. Jeff left me with a couple miles to go so he could go to the finish, at which point Erik and Kira picked me up. Erik was talking to me and I didn’t like what he was saying so I kept my head pointed forward and kept running. At one point I looked over to him and said, “Do you know how deep I am digging for this?” and he replied back “Yes”. He knew how serious I was. Several times on the second loop I would almost start hyperventaliting, just wanting to burst out in tears. Not sure what that was all about. And I had a massive headache. Ugh. Erik and Kira left with about a mile and a half to go so they could go to the finish with Jeff and my parents. I got up to the capital and saw Jessica and Dave. They were starting their second loop. They looked great. So happy for them on finishing their first Ironman as well. Saw Jeff Z and Mary at the water station, said Hi and confirmed I was not pulling a Jeff (puking during every Ironman he has done) and ran for the finish. Came up to the chute and I was all alone. Mike Reilly called out my name and said “This one is for you Alicia”; “You are an Ironman”. I made it!!! I was so pumped! Run time: 5:18:53. Disappointing, to say the least.

Final Thoughts

I accomplished my goal of finishing but have lots to work on for next year.  So many positive things came out of this race and I can't wait to build on them for next year.  No pity party on the run next year.  Mark my words.  I hope to simplfy my personal life in the next couple months and get back to focusing on the things I love to do....swim, bike, run.  I want to thank all the people that put up with this lifestyle and training all year.  Jeff and Asher, thank you for dealing with my insane daily schedule.  Mark, thanks for all the yards in the pool and miles on the road.  Erik and Kira, for pushing me on race day and every day in between.  My parents for supporting me and my crazy dreams.  And of course Mike for his excellent coaching and positive energy.  So glad he took a chance on me.  Ironman 2011 here I come!!!

Overdue race reports

I have been racing this summer, just have been terrible about updating my blog.  So here is an intense update of the races I have done to date.....

High Cliff Half Ironman

First triathlon of the season was the High Cliff Half Ironman on June 19th.  This was my first tri of the season so I was a bit nervous to see how my training, nutrition changes and equipment changes would work out.  All had been used in training but a race is so much different than training. The swim was interesting.  White caps and a strong wind.  In fact it was supposed to be pretty windy all day.  We lined up and started at 7am.  It took me a bit to get going in the swim.  I kept swallowing water and getting pummeled by the waves but I eventually got in my groove and was on my way.  I came out of the water in 23 minutes.  I think since the waves were so strong for a couple days the course was short.  But anyway onto T1 and the bike.  The bike went pretty well.  We had a head wind from the west but I didn't let it bother me.  I just kept pushing and riding like I had practiced.  I tried my new nutrition and all was going good until about 10 miles left in the bike.  I started to get light headed and a headache.  I thought it was because of being in the aero position for so long (even though I had training rides longer than 56 miles going into the race).  I had eaten all my food that I brought, which was exactly what I was supposed to do so I did good there and drank a lot.  Finally got off the bike in 2:49, very pumped about that, I wanted 2:50 so I was right on track.  Now for a good run and for my foot to hold up on the trails.  This is a tough run.  You start out by going up the high cliff hill, which is nasty and then run the other 11-12 miles on trails.  My foot hadn't been very good on trails lately so I was worried how bad it might get today.  But little did I know that would be the least of my problems.  I also had forgotten my hand held water bottle with my Gatorade in it and my run nutrition in it.  Not good.  So I grabbed what few honey stingers I had left on my bike and headed out.  I started out of T2 happy to be off the bike, ready to focus on the run but soon realized I had nothing in the tank. I was running completely empty of calories. But how could that be? I ate quite a bit on the bike.  I climbed the hill and to my surprise Jeff was at the top of the hill with my water bottle asking...."Did you forget something?!?!"  I was so happy to see him.  I continued to trudge on but knew I was out of it.  I saw Jeff a couple more times on the first loop and the same places on the second loop.  He was very encouraging and I was not, saying I feel like crap.  Run time: 2:20 (terrible, I know) and Overall Time was 5:35.  So while I was so busy feeling like crap I was trying to figure out what went wrong.  So here's what I came up with.  The week before the race was hectic.  The day after the race we were leaving to spend 10 days in New York so getting ready for that kept me busy all week.  Also I don't think I ate enough the day before the race or rest enough.  The day before was exceptionally crazy.  And my third conclusion is that, despite how good the lefse sit, I burn through the calories too fast and need to eat more to have some energy for the run but can't really do that because they are too dry to eat a ton of them.  So back to the drawing board before Door County in about a month.  Oh and as I was walking back to get my stuff, sulking a bit because of my terrible run, I ran into a friend of mine, Mike.  We started talking and next thing I know I have a new coach.  Never had a coach before.  This could be interesting.    Some pictures from the race:

Swim start.  Check out the nice white caps!

Done with the swim.  Trying to catch my breath up that hill.

On the bike

On the run

More running

Happy to be done!

Fox Firecracker 5K

This is a 5K put on by the Fox Tri Club on the 4th of July.  It's in its third year and going strong.  It is very well organized and always gives a great shirt.  It's usually in a pretty heavy training block for me so I traditionally ride to the run and then run the run with Jeff and his kids.  This year was the same gig.  I got in about 49 miles on the bike before the race, ran the race with Philip and Jeff and then rode home, another 17 miles for 66 total on the day.  The race went well.  Windy and warm.  Philip had his best time ever and it was fun to run with him and see him do so well.  The ride home, not as much fun.  Very few calories = very miserable ride home.  That along with a new bike position made me uncomfortable, but I did it and it was a fun day. 

Door County Half Ironman

This is my favorite half ironman in the area.  It is so well run, the bike course is good, the swim is good and the run is tough, okay I like everything but the run and the two large mountains you have to climb up.  The race was on July 18th and was scheduled to start at 8am.  All week the weather people had been predicting storms for Sunday but we optimistically hoped they would hold off.  I raced last year at Pig Man in storms and it was miserable so I vowed never to do that again.  Well I got up Sunday morning to rain and huge green, yellow and red blobs coming our way.  Being optimistic (although the whole way up I was saying I'm not sure I want to race in the rain again and maybe they'll shorten it or call it if it's bad) we, Jeff (my awesome race sherpa) and I, headed up.  I got there, parked and got ready for the day.  New nutrition today.  Homemade pop tarts and a Reese's Fast Break Candy bar.  I had tried the combo the week before in training and it was okay so I was confident to give it a go today.  This was my first race under my new coach and with my new power meter (more on that in another post) so we'll see what I got.  I got everything set up, put my garbage bag over all my stuff (I learned that the hard way at Pig Man, I came back from the bike to have two running shoes with lakes in them, not cool) and just hung around.  They announced a 30 minute delay because of lightening so more time to talk and chill.  So finally, 8:30 rolls around and we are ready to go.  I was in wave 2 for the swim, the women's elite wave (Wave 1 was elite men).  Three minutes go by from the men's start and we are off.  The water was like glass!  Sweet!  I am cruising along, getting in my groove, following some girls feet, getting jammed by guys at the back of their wave that we caught already.  I get to some open water and just start cruising.  Cool.  I'm start making a game out of it.  I wanted to see how guys I could pass before the end.  So I am pushing along at a good pace, not all out but a good solid pace.  Out of the water in 28:49, my best swim time at this race.  Good enough for 3rd female out of the water.  And I passed lots of guys.  Made a quick stop by the wet suit stripper for them to rip off my wet suit and on to T1, which was slow by the way, not sure why but it was.  Got my bike, ready to hop on and my chain is off.  WTH!!  So I fix that and I'm out.  While I was fixing that a couple girls passed me and a couple more passed me in T1 too since I was so slow.  Out for the bike.  New bike position and new seat, less than a week old.  We'll see how this goes.  I'm feeling good.  I'm passing women and even some guys.  Somewhere between mile 5 and 10 a squirrel runs out at me from the woods and goes in between my two wheels....seriously!!  How much is God seriously smiling on me today?!?!  I for sure thought I was going to hit him.  I had just passed a girl and she then pulled up next to me.  I said "Did you see that?", she said "Yeah, that was freaky stuff!".  And off I went.  The rest of the bike ride went okay.  I kept up on my eating and my drinking and my new position turned out to be okay.  I remember the roads last year being very bumpy but this year I was definitely in a better mental space and my wheels are so comfortable that they didn't bother me.  We did get rained on a couple times on the bike but nothing too serious.  The wind picked up about half way through but it was more of a tail wind than anything so it was welcomed.  I finished up the bike in 2:43 which is my best half ironman bike time ever.  Time to run.  The run started out okay.  I felt pretty good, felt good on calories and I remembered my bottle with my nutrition in it this time.  The first two miles clicked away pretty quickly.  It was getting humid and a bit warm but that didn't bother me.  I started to pick up a few hills in mile 3 and then saw Jeff at mile 4.  I was slowly running out of steam at this point.  My legs were just done, my quads, my hamstrings, my calves, getting to their limit.  Coach knew this was probably going to happen with the new bike position and pushing harder on the bike but it was okay, it's just a training day.  I continued on on the run, up a big hill, saw Jeff again, through Egg Harbor, down a few more hills I climbed earlier and then up the big bluff hill and then on to the finish.  Run time was not good, I walked some, especially up the big climbs and a few other times.  Run time of 2:06.  Overall time of 5:25.  This race has gotten big time in the last two years, which is awesome to see, so I was pretty low on the results by the end.  Overall the day went well.  I felt good on the swim and bike and hung on for the run.  God really shined on us today, there were two huge weather systems that went north and south of us and kept us safe and dry.  It was just amazing.  And the squirrel incident turned out okay as well.  And a major positive, my nutrition worked out well and I felt good nutritionally off the bike.  Only two pictures from the day:

Out of the swim

Into the finish

Packers 5K

On Saturday, July 31st we did the first annual Packers 5K Run/Walk.  Mark, Asher and I ran 12 miles early in the humid rain.  We got poured on for most of it.  But thankfully that actually kept us cool.  We changed, got refueled and Jeff, Mark and I went to the 5K.  It was misting for about the first mile of the run and then it got super humid.  We wore our packers clothes and hats and Mark put his game face on, putting stickers under his eyes.  The course did a huge loop around Lambeau and the last mile we ran in the tunnel and did a loop around the field and back out to the finish.  This was a good run for the first year, hopefully they keep it up for years to come.  And it would be really cool if some of the Packer players would actually run, none of us saw any but that would be really cool.  It was also fun to run through Lambeau feeling much fresher than we do at the marathon. 

So I think that gets everything caught up.  Several fun races this summer.  Not much for August, just lots of training, which I'm looking forward to. 

Bellin Run 10K

Saturday was the 34th running of the Bellin Run 10K, which is one of the largest 10K's in the country and right in our back yard. I have run this race on and off for several years, and this was the first organized race I ever ran when I started running.  I didn't even know if I could make the whole 6.2 miles.  And I've been hooked on running ever since.  This race continues to grow and this year reached a new participant amount of 18,398 registered participants.  Just amazing. 

Traditionally it is hot and humid and this year was definitely not going to disappoint, especially in the humidity department.  All week there were concerns of thunderstorms but thankfully those went else.  Instead we were left with 100% humidity and temps in the low 60's.  Bright spot....or rather not so bright spot is that it was 100% cloudy...awesome!!

The race runs two very popular programs within the run, the Corporate Challenge and the Kids for Running.  I lead our corporate challenge program through work.  It's great.  Extra t-shirts for signing up, early delivery of your packet, good perks.  The Kids for Running program is also very cool.  Schools have people actually run and train with the kids.  It's great to get the youth into running.

The run has incorporated waves into the starting process, so you sign up based on your expected pace and that places you in a wave.  Waves go every 5 minutes.  This year there were 8 waves.  So if you are in a later wave you might be able to see the winners finish.  That's pretty cool and it keeps the congestion and chaos of the start down and more controlled.  I was in the first wave, so Mark and I trooped up to the front, as our wave was first to go.  They announced the pros and we were set to go.  The gun went off and it took us about a minute to get to the start.  We were pushing a good pace, not able to talk except a few words but not blazing fast.  The first couple miles are uphill.  I usually go out too fast and suffer on the back stretch.  I didn't want to do that today.  Mark and I had done a 2 mile warm up before the race so I thought I was warmed up well and ready to go.  We checked off mile 1 and I was feeling okay, not great but okay.  My heart rate was pretty high and I wasn't able to breathe as well as I had wanted.  We were about 1.5 miles in and I decided to start slowing down a bit, conserve some for after the hill.  And I just kept feeling worse, never better.  I was getting warm at this point too.  Past mile 2 down and up and down the Greene Ave hills.  Still not feeling good.  My legs were empty and my heart rate was out of control high.  Past mile 3 to the water station.  Mark was still with me even though he was bouncing around, talking, obviously not hardly working and I was clearly slowing him down.  For about the 100th time I told him to go and I would meet him at the finish but he stayed.  We walked through the water station trying to get my heart rate down.  It was down but shot back up as soon as I started running again.  Oh well, over half done.  Past mile 4, then about 4.3 in Mark's nephew Zach whips past us and I tell Mark to go and get him and I walk for a bit.  I was ashamed of walking.  Not cool.  I just had nothing in me.  So then I vowed to finish, running, no more breaks.  Past mile 5, only 1 mile left.  I can make it.  Down the forever long Clay St.  past mile 6, around two corners and giving it all I have into the finish (which wasn't much at this point).  Finished.....50:07.  So disappointed.  My best time was last year at 46:59.  So very disappointed.  I ran terrible, I felt terrible, the whole day was just terrible. 

I was so mad at how the race went.  I had had two good runs this past week leading up to the race, a good interval day and a good tempo day but I just couldn't put it to work on race day.  My legs were empty, my heart rate was the highest I have ever seen and mentally I just broke down.  Back to the drawing board on this one.

On the plus side, after we finished and talked to people a bit at the finish, Mark and I ran back and got Jeff, Erik and his daughter.  She is 10 and was running the Bellin for the first time.  Super cool!!  She did awesome!  Jeff also cut 4 1/2 minutes off his previous best from last year!  He continues to improve and do well.  The last couple were a ton more fun than the first 6, there is something to be said for seeing people continue to improve and get stronger and faster.  So neat to see.  I didn't talk to anyone cool and famous like Brad did, I'm just not that good or cool.  But I did get to see a lot of my friends and co-workers out there racing and having fun and that was awesome!  Congrats to all the finishers.

Cellcom Green Bay Marathon

May 16, 2010 was the 11th running of the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon. This was the 8th time I have run the marathon. This was the first marathon I ever ran, back in 2003 and have run it every year since. I originally planned to do the half marathon that year, until I met Shanna Zahn at work and started training with her. We met on Saturday's with the marathon training group (which consisted of very few people and we met in the hallway behind the old Suanne's Bagels in East De Pere, now Cafe Indulge). The routes were incorrectly marked for distance, we didn't have GPS', I wore a big heavy sweatshirt and some soccer clothes in the dead of winter and I had never even heard of GU let alone tried it. Well I have learned a lot over the years and continue to search for the "secret of the marathon". Hopefully someday I find it.


This year's installment of the race turned out to be perfect weather wise. Couldn't ask for anything better. I ran with Mark for the whole race. Our original goal was to start and stay with the 3:50 pacer (which was my friend Craig). Well that worked until about mile 3 and Craig picked it up. Our pace up to that point was exactly where we wanted to be and I didn't want to hang with him and push it too much. The first couple miles were fast enough. I, of course, didn't feel that fresh. Mark did, as usual, and was just bouncing along but I held him back with my slow pace. I felt trashy and low on calories for miles 3-13. I didn't feel terrible, just felt like I was working pretty hard to keep the 8:45 pace I wanted. I was eating this whole time, but I think I start low on calories and so the first few miles of a race are bad and the back end are better if I can catch up on my calories, there's a big "IF" there. We ran into a friend of mine, Shauna, on the course and ran with her for a bit. We then saw my friend Stacy about mile 6 and gave her a big wave. We saw Sue at mile 6.5 and Mark changed his shirt and then shortly after we saw my sister. My brother-in-law Brent was running the half so she was there to cheer for him. He started with us but dropped back about mile 4.5 with a side ache. We saw a few more people we knew and just kept checking off the miles. I took a little longer water stop break at mile 9 to stretch, thinking this would help me to feel better....it didn't help at the time but I think it did help in the later miles. We kept trucking along through the half way point, past where the half and full marathoners split (I almost had to pull Mark with me for the full....there was no way I was doing this alone....sorry buddy!). We ran right by my house about mile 15 and Mark about had to hold me back from going to get Asher. (I think Asher got more props in this race than I did, everyone wanted to know where my dog was!) My foot really started to hurt about mile 15 so I took some more ibuprofen. We ran across the bridge in De Pere and just as we were about to go on the Fox River Trail, we run into my friend Erik on his mountain bike....Awesome!! So he “tried” to stay with us for the next several miles, I say “tried” not because of our blazing pace but because there were so many people on the trail spectating and running that it was hard to maneuver a bike. But he tried and we got to talk to him several times. He left us and I asked him to meet us at mile 24, that's when we are going to need some help, or at least I would given my past marathon experience. About mile 17 I really started to feel good. I started to get my second wind and really enjoy the run. Mark stopped at Fox Point to go to the bathroom and the 4 hour pacer passed us….dang. We caught up to them but then lost them at the Schenck water station, I stopped at the bathroom quick and Mark stopped to talk to Sue. We continued to just plug on. Nutritionally I felt really good. I felt like I had good energy and wasn't lightheaded as usual. I liked the pace we were keeping and was even able to talk to people and look around. Except for my foot, I felt decent. We (okay, maybe just me) danced our way across the Walnut Street bridge downtown to Toby Mac "One World" and were on our way "home" to Lambeau. Mile 23 Jeff Zellner caught up to us. Not sure how he caught us because he started before us, but anyway. We ran with him for a bit. At this point we graciously conceded our demise to the 9's that we were trying to keep and rolled along at 10's. My left IT band got very sore at this point and felt like it was going to cramp around mile 23. Never had that happen before. I think that is because I was altering my gate because my right foot hurt so bad. Erik rode his bike from Lambeau and met us about mile 24. That helped. I talked to him which was nice, it kept my mind off of the task at hand. We cruised through the next couple miles and got back to Lambeau. We ran through the Mile 25 Margarita water station (in which we wisely did not partake) and rounded the corner onto Oneida and saw Jeff, Dave and Jess. We saw Mark's friends Walter and Carol while we ran into the party...aka Lambeau Field and the finish line. Jeff Z got his second wind and kicked our butts through the stadium. We ran out of the stadium and gave it our all to a strong finish. I was very happy to be done. I think Mark was too. Afterwards we met up with all our family and friends and chatted about the race.

Nutritionally I felt very strong, especially in the later miles, which is where I usually run out of steam. I just need to figure out the early miles. My stomach felt good with the gatorade, water, honey stinger combination so I'm very excited about that. And my legs only got a little tight towards the end. I had stopped a couple times along the course to stretch which I think helped a ton in the later miles. If my foot wouldn't have been bad I probably would have done a warm up to get my legs loosened up and stretched out but I didn't want to pound on my foot any more than possible. I think this would have helped with the tight legs. It's hard to go from nothing to 26.2 miles with no warm up. I thought this year’s race was the best yet, the crowd support was fantastic. We saw a ton of people along the course that we knew....which is the huge benefit of running a marathon in your home town. (Mark, the social butterfly, definitely put me away with the amount of people he knows...holy smokes.) Our final time was 4:09:50.  Well my time was later changed to 51...not sure why....so Mark....once again....beat me by 1/100th of a second. I'm going to stop running with him if he's going to continue to push me out of the way at the finish....how rude! J/K  Glad he can put up with me for 26.2 miles.  Until next time....

P.S.  Sue did take a couple pictures of us, but I can't seem to get them added.  Sorry.  Just words this time.

Navarino Trail Half Marathon

I did the Navarino Trail Half Marathon back in mid-April but never posted anything about it.  I'm a slacker...I know.  Anyway, this was a Marathon or Half Marathon.  Totally awesome.  I go over and run on the Navarino trails a few times a year.  It's one of the only trails in the area that it's okay to have dogs....and yes that erks me to no end!  Asher loves it and so do I so when they changed their previous distance of a 15K to a marathon or half marathon I knew I had to do one.  I didn't want to do three marathons in three months so I stuck with the half.  It was great.  A couple friends of mine ran the full so I got there early to watch them start (they started an hour before us halfers did).  I ran the half and then went back and got my friend Jeff and finished again with him.  It was a cool and windy day but you didn't notice it too bad in the thick forest.  This race is really well run and the trails are soft and challenging.  I recommend this to anyone that likes to trail run.  I never posted the few pictures I took from the race so here they are:

Marathon Start

Marathon Start

Brad after the first mile (he went on to take second for the marathon)

Mike after the first mile (he's in the white shirt)

The Half Marathon medal

LA Marathon March 21, 2010

26.2 miles, Los Angeles, CA, March 21st, 2010.....been there, done that.  A couple weekends ago I went to LA and ran the Los Angeles Marathon with my training partner Mark, his soon to be son-in-law Sam and Sam's roommate Laura.  This was to be Sam's first marathon and Laura's 2nd.  We were all excited.  Sam and Laura got to train in balmy LA while Mark and I gutted it out in another fun Wisconsin winter.  We were trained, tanned (well some of us) and ready to race. 

We flew to LA late on Friday night and went to the expo at Dodger Stadium on Saturday afternoon. 

Entrance to Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium is on the top of a hill, there is pretty much only one way in and one way out.  This resulted in some interesting traffic on Sunday morning.  The race filled to capacity, 25,000 runners.  This was the biggest marathon Mark, Sam or Laura had ever done (I did Chicago with 45,000 runners in 2008) so we were expecting big things.  We had been receiving emails everyday with important race information for us and our families and friends so we were getting lots of good information about the race.  Dodger Stadium was nice.  We got to walk about the stadium and take pictures of the field.  It's amazing how green everything was there.  Awesome to see. 

Dodger Stadium

They had a nice big expo, lots of stuff to do and see.  Picked up our packet and found out they ran out of some sizes of shirts, the shirts came in really small so everyone was sizing up.  Huh.  From there we checked out the start line and start coral. 

From Left to Right: Sam, me, Mark at the start line

Seemed really small to push 25,000 runners through.  And then we saw the porta's.....this was definitely going to be an issue race morning.  Not nearly enough.  Left Dodger Stadium and hit Hollywood for dinner and then home to rest the feet and mind for the next day.

Race day, beautiful weather, was supposed to get up to the mid 70's by the afternoon and was sunny (I guess it's always sunny in LA).  Good stuff.  We left the hotel at 5:30 and the drive was supposed to take about 20-25 minutes so we had plenty of time.  We were doing great until 2 miles from the Dodger Stadium exit and then we were in a huge traffic jam and totally stopped.  Not good.  It took us about 45 minutes to go those next 2 miles.  Again the problem, one way in and one way out for 25,000 people.  Not a good plan.  They race organizers encouraged people to park at the finish (there was not much parking at the finish) and shuttle to the start.  Well the shuttles were stuck in the same traffic we were.  Our rides were just going to go in and drop us off but it was still crazy.  People were starting to panic and were getting out of their cars on the interstate and running or walking to the race start.  We even saw people ducking behind bushes and trees doing to the bathroom alongside the freeway.  This was crazy.  Plus like I said before, Dodger Stadium is on a hill so to get there you have to climb the hill.  I didn't want to waste extra energy doing this, as did our other racers so we waited the line out and eventually got in.  The drop off was very smooth, just tough to get into the stadium for the drop off.  As soon as we got into the stadium we headed for the porta's and the line was forever.  They didn't have nearly enough porta's for all the people in the race.  People were climbing a hill and going behind bushes.  My luck is I would hurt myself doing that so I waited out the line.  45 minutes later we were all done and ready to head to the start line.  The race was supposed to start at 7:20-7:25 (I saw different times on this the weeks leading up to the race as well) but it started about 7:45, at least our portion of the race did.  This is a bit of a unique event, the women get a head start, this time it was around 18 minutes, on the men and the first individual to the finish line wins $100,000.  Last year a man won but it has traded hands between the men and the women for the last six years.  Kind of a cool thing.  Because the start chute was so small we had to wait outside the chute until the start.  Finally after almost 15 minutes of waiting (and hearing the kick off song 5 times) we crossed the start line. 

Our first mile was around Dodger Stadium, up a hill then down a hill.  We were passing people like crazy in the first few miles.  Because we started so far back we were with racers that were a bit slower than us so we passed a ton of people.  That feels good but it's also hard to get a rhythm dodging people all the time.  This race had a band at every mile, water every mile and Powerade every other mile.  The aid stations and volunteers were awesome.  Even with that amount of runners they did a great job.  They had lots of cups set up ahead but that goes quickly with 25,000 runners and they handled it well.  Mark and I carried our hand held bottle with Gatorade in it instead of using the Powerade on the course, I prefer Gatorade.  This worked out well.  We were clipping along at a nice pace, a little slower than we had planned, but with the amount of people and with us dodging people all the time this pace was suiting us just fine.  The first 6 miles are a loop around downtown and then we pass Dodger Stadium again before heading on Sunset Blvd into Hollywood, Beverly Hills and finally to Santa Monica and Ocean Ave for the finish.  The first 6 miles turned out to be pretty hilly, and not just little bumps in the road but some pretty steep things that were at least 1/4 mile long.  My heart rate was climbing with these hills and it getting warmer and I was having trouble keeping it down.  Even when we would walk through a water station it still didn't want to stay down.  I was getting worried and more concerned about it which wasn't helping to keep it down.  So far all 4 of us were staying together, chatting and Mark and I were learning about the city as we passed things from Sam and Laura.  We were having a blast.  At about the mile 10 mark, Mark and I got separated from Sam and Laura.  They were cruising along really good, my heart rate was high and we just lost them in a water station.  They were just ahead of us but we didn't push to catch up to them.  About mile 13.5 Mark and I passed Sam and Laura.  Sam was walking as he was having a calf cramp.  We were supposed to meet our support crew (Jeff, Sue, Michelle and Stephanie) at mile 14 to refill our water bottles with Gatorade and get more nutrition if needed.

Sue, Michelle and Stephanie Smith - Mile 14 Support Crew

(taken by Jeff, also in the support crew)

So we passed them and told them we would meet them just ahead.  We caught our group and waited for Sam and Laura to get there.

Mark and I at mile 14

They never showed so Michelle called Laura's cell phone, they missed them and were going to keep going.  Okay, so we headed out.  I felt good for the next few miles, before that I was not feeling real spunky to say the least.  About mile 17 I really started to fade.  My heart rate kept getting higher and higher.  I was doing okay on my nutrition (I was taking honey stingers and sucking on them, when one was done I would pop another one in and gatorade and water) but I was feeling a bit weak and my heart rate was high.  So we walked a bit, got it down and then kept going.  Mark was great, he just kept encouraging me to keep going and was okay with a few walk breaks.  We would walk through the water stations which helped.  Mentally I was doing okay but was warm and ready to be done.  We kept this up until we ran into Sam and Laura again at mile 24.  She looked great, Sam on the other hand was walking with major cramps in his legs.  Based on the fact that we had his nutrition because he didn't stop by the crew it was either nutrition or fluids or a combination of both that was getting him.  We told Laura to take off, there was a bet on the line with major money depending on how she finish, Sam was going to walk and Mark and I just wanted to get done.  The finish down Ocean Ave was long (almost 2 miles) and really played with you mentally but we did it, even picked it up in the end and finished strong.  We were happy to be done!  Our time: 4:30:19 (4:30:18 for Mark because he pushed me out of the way to beat me....not really but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) didn't seem like a great time but now that the race is over and we saw the results we had an overall place of 5700 out of 22478 finishers.  Not bad when you look at it that way!  And a woman was first to the finish line and won the $100,000.  Super cool!!

After the race

From Left to Right: Sam, me, Laura, Mark

Final thoughts on the race.......not well organized at all.  If they are going to let 25,000 runners in, then they need to be ready for 25,000 runners, not 10,000.  The start and finish need to be more accessible to spectators and racers.  The stadium start and ocean finish are really cool but when it takes you 2 hours to get to the start and 2 hours to leave the finish it kind of takes some of the fun away from it all.  Volunteers were awesome.  Company was awesome. :)  I wish I would have felt better, but I did accomplish my goals for the day, to practice my new nutrition, run an early season marathon and finish, and just have fun.  Mark and I did get to mile 25 and Mark said to me, I like we forgot to look around for the last 25 miles like we planned, so next time I would like to make sure to focus on relaxing, having fun and enjoying the race.  Glad to get one under my belt for the year and ready to improve in Green Bay.

Here are some other random pictures from the race:

Wheelchair athlete

Mile 14 water stop - check out all those cups!!

The professional women at mile 14

The professional men at mile 14

Here is the elevation chart from the race:

Doesn't look so bad when you look at it like this but the elevation gain was 3,168 ft.