Race update and more

Well hello there. Thanks for not losing hope on me as a blogger. You might want to grab a cold one and get comfortable. This could be a long post since I haven't written much in a while.

All is good in Colleen land - work is busy, training is finally feeling good again, we're traveling this weekend to DC with the fam for a long weekend. I'm happy...

This past weekend we raced at East Fork State Park. It's down south near Cincinnati and I should have learned my lesson with the Flying Pig Marathon that if it's down south near Cincinnati, it's gonna be hilly! :) Sadly, Tom and I actually had a little bit of a heads up from someone but we're gluttons for punishment! We headed down there on Saturday to get our race packets and just stay the night since it would be abut a 2.5 hour drive for us and that's a bit much on race morning. We stopped by our hotel (which was really a motel) first and checked in. I was a bit skeptical when we got there and did the drive through check in. Nothing but the best for us! :) The room was actually really nice - we always luck into the handicap rooms though and this one was unlike anything I'd ever seen. The bathroom was literally as big as the room. I wish I had taken more pictures. All I have is this lovely photo of my hubby cleaning our wheels before the race:After checking out the room for any skank (it was a motel after all) we went to the park. It was definitely hilly going into it and for some reason there was no beach. Weird... we come to find out after getting our packets that the place is actually flooded and the beach is buried under the VERY dirty water. I decided to get a short swim in and on the way out stubbed the bottom of my foot on the sidewalk that usually separates the beach from the grass. I get a cut on my foot. Ugh... what a way to start. Tom and I were going to go for a short run, but seeing as how we would have had to run uphill right away and it was hot we skipped it, went back to the hotel and hit up Red Robin for dinner. Nothing like a wrap and unlimited steak fries as a prerace dinner! :) Oh, I forgot that we drove the bike course and I threw up a little in my mouth. It was then I realized that I wasn't going to PR this race. :(

Sunday morning came fast. We packed everything up, grabbed some breakfast and went to the race site. It was busy and my stomach was doing flips. I don't know why. I've raced Olympics a dozen times, I knew I was ready, maybe it was the hills, maybe it was the steak fries. In any event, I hit the potties and Tom got things ready at the car.
We got set up and had plenty of time so I hit the potties again, and walked to the beach - well, where the beach should be. The water was calm which was a nice change from Saturday when I swam. My wave was the second to last so I did was I always do... waited and waited and waited. There were only 21 women in the Olympic so the swim wave was nice and calm. The bull horn sounded and we were off. I felt great - breathing was under control, I was calm. I thought "I must be on my way to a swim PR because I feel like I'm floating". Honestly I probably could have convinced myself that I looked like Dara Torres or something. Yeah, not so much according to my watch. It's so darn frustrating feeling so good and swimming so slow. Oh well... maybe next year I'll PR in the swim. Swim time was 31:49

T1 was uneventful. There were practically no bikes left on my rack so I was able to get through without anyone bothering me. HA! I can always find the positives of being a slow swimmer. T1 time - 1:44

The bike was difficult, but probably not as bad as I thought when I drove it the day before. I did ride in my small front ring a lot which isn't like me, but I knew that if I wanted not have the feeling of wanting to rip my IT band out of my leg later, I needed to conserve. I didn't pass too many people which isn't like me. I'm just not a fan of hills and quite frankly, I suck at climbing. I did hit 40mph on a downhill which was fun! And I did something I swore I'd never do - pee'd on the bike. TMI, I'm sure, but I had two options - not get enough fluids even though I was extremely thirsty but my bladder was so full, or release the bladder. There was nowhere to get off and hide to pee so I pee'd on the bike. It was super gross and I'll not do it again. I don't even want to talk about it more than that. It still haunts me. Bike time - 1:23:04 17.9mph BLAH

T2 I took my sweet ole' time. Tom beat me in T2. That says something (just kidding honey - I love you!) T2 time 1:36

The run starts uphill. Well you wind through the parking lot which totally confused me and then you run uphill. Just like in biking, I'm horrible with hills in running too. The first loop was a struggle. I just didn't feel right. Shocker, I know. That's the way all of my races have gone this year. The second time up the hill I passed two people, a guy who mumbled something about not being ready for the hills (me too buddy) and a girl who told me that I had a great cadence going and to go get em girl. Totally boosted my confidence and the second lap was awesome! Tom finished 20 minutes before me and was able to get pictures of me finishing. My run time was 57:07. Again, BLAH!
Overall, I felt like I had a decent race. I finished in 2:55 which kind of bummed me out, but then I remembered that I hate hills, avoid them at any cost and well, that means that I suck at them. :) I ended up snagging 2nd in my AG believe it or not so I shouldn't complain.

I do need to give the hubster props though. He was 10th overall on the bike and won his division. He's a rockstar. :)

Afterward, in true Ironman fashion, we biked another 1:45. We tried to stay close to the park and found a lovely hill that we decided to climb multiple times. Again, glutton for punishment. I actually think that the biking afterward helped my legs because I felt surprisingly good the rest of the evening. I look happy after the race, big ass 65 on my arm and all (the body marking kid was eating a burrito when he marked me and decided to take up the entire arm and leg with my number. Tom laughed and opted out of body marking)
So, the next race is August 23rd - Great Buckeye Challenge half ironman. Tom's not going to do the race and I just feel like I need something between now and the end of September. Last year the race sucked - it was 9 million degrees and they started the women half distance last at like 9:30 which meant that we were running a half marathon around 1pm. In August. With no shade. Hopefully this time around will be better. :)