Nike Women's Marathon 2012 Weekend/Race Report

This past weekend my sister and I went to San Francisco (with two of her best friends) to run the Nike Women's Marathon (NWM).  We signed up for the lottery last year and didn't get in (luckily, since she had already convinced me to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon), so decided to try again this year.  Somehow, our party of two got selected, which brought us to SF the Friday morning before the race.

We stayed at Petite Auberge which is really all sorts of fabulousness.  I won't go crazy with the details but highlights include:

• Location three blocks from Union Square (home to the race start. race expo, and VERY upscale shopping)
• Free fresh baked cookies (chocolate chip was my favorite), delicious home-cooked breakfast, and wine with h'ordeuvres everyday
• Super friendly staff and guests

Pre-Race
After checking in and eating at least four chocolate cookies each (fresh from the oven) we headed to the marathon Expotique (no plebian marathon expo for NWM, no sir) to pick up our packets with our bibs, but no T-shirts.

My sister: "Where are our t-shirts?"
Nike helper lady: "You only get those when you finish."
My sister: "WTF?"

Okay, she didn't say that last part, but she might as well have.  Seriously - WTF?  I guess you don't get any of the good stuff (more on that later) unless you actually run the darn 26.2 miles.

We spent the rest of Friday and all day Saturday doing what you should be doing if you are planning to run a marathon - walk up and down steep hills (hello, SF) eating lots of good rich food (hello, macaron).

Sis and I Saturday at the biggest and nicest farmer's market I've ever been to

My sister and her friends had never been to SF before and I was just running this thing to support her.  This was just going to be for fun, so I didn't mind the walking.  SF is a beautiful town with some pretty cool stuff to see.

Race Day
I know I already said our hotel was awesome, but being one block from our corrals doubled the awesomeness.  We were able to get up relatively late, get down to the start, do bag check, go to the bathrooms, and stand around with a few thousand of our closest friends with plenty of time to spare.

About half an hour before the race, this is the corral behind me.  It was about to get a lot more crowded.

I hung out at the very back of my corral (Sis was in a different corral) because I was looking to meet up with someone I had met at the Diva's half marathon the week before.  We never did meet, but being at the back didn't hurt me in any way.  I'm going to give it to the race organizers, they really listened to past criticisms and the corral system was great.  There were lots of port-a-potties and by the time we got near the race start there was plenty of space to run.  I wasn't running (saving that for the the start line), but everyone else was running about a block out.

I hadn't really trained for this marathon much.  After Pumpkinman I was pretty tired and pretty lazy, so my training consisted of one long run a week.  I got up to 21 miles once thanks to my friend Sam.  Normally for marathon training I would do three 20+ mile runs.  So while I was sure I could finish I was thinking it was going to be much much slower than my PR.

Oh, and did I mention there were hills?

This doesn't look hard...

The race starts out pretty flat, but get serious around mile 6.  My first eight miles was pretty slow (~10:00 miles) thanks to the lack of training and the (beautiful) hills of SF.  Due to my Garmin dying during Pumpkinman I don't know for sure when I started picking up the pace.  My end average pace was 9:16 so somewhere in those 26.2 miles I must have been hauling butt a little because I'm pretty sure my last six miles were on the slow side too.

Overall, the race was pretty uneventful for me.  I tried to keep a fairly even pace once I started running a bit faster.  My feet started hurting around mile 18 and I was just ready to be done with the race.  During the last "hill" (really a bump) I started walking because I was really tired, but this girl I had been running next to for the previous three or four miles encouraged me to start running again and we ran together almost to the finish (I slowed down a lot in the last quarter mile and she pulled away).  Thank you random girl whose name I can't remember right now for pulling me along.  I was happy with my time given the circumstances. Would I have liked to run faster?  Absolutely, but I think given my fitness and training I did the best I could have possibly done and that makes me very proud.

I was pretty done at that point.

The end of the race, which everyone probably knows about, is as pretty darn cool.  There are firemen in tuxedos with Tiffany's boxes holding finisher's medals on a silver tray.  I took a picture of this with my phone, but I think the Noggin erased it when he was playing with my phone.  Suffice to say, that was pretty exciting.

Sweet!

After getting my medal I got my finisher t-shirt (finally), which could not be anymore florescent green.  I know these bright colors are the rage right now now, but I am not a fan.  Additionally, florescent green does nothing for the Asian complexion - nothing.

The finish area had a stretching tent (very cool), a changing tent, and a finisher's boutique.  I wasn't feeling the merchandise at Niketown before the race, but was definitely more excited to purchase something after I was done.  Also, Niketown before the race was a feeding frenzy of almost unmatched proportions.  Anyhow, after I took advantage of these amenities, I settled in with my sister's friends and this cool cowbell they had picked up at the cheer station (thanks, ladies) to welcome my sister in.

I think I almost had more fun cheering people and ringing my cowbell than I did running the race.  It was really fantastic to see all those ladies accomplish something special and to yell (encouragement) at random strangers.

On a side note - like the Diva's Half Marathon the week before, where it was impossible to spot anyone you knew wearing pink, at NWM it was impossible to spot anyone wearing purple.  NWM supports Team in Training (TNT), whose color is purple.  It seemed that every other person was part of TNT so when my sister decided to wear a purple tank for the run, we found it pretty challenging to spot her.  However, she was wearing a white hat (who knew this would be differentiating) and her friend was able to spot her about a tenth of a mile out.  I got to cheer her on and she was able to finish strong (before they closed down shop at the finish).

Last Points
Overall I thought the event was fantastic.  The organization was pretty good, the perks were really nice, and the course was beautiful.  I would recommend it for a girls' weekend/race.  Points of interest (good and bad) for those of you who might be interested in doing this in the future:

• There is a bra exchange around mile 6.5 (yes, you could swap your disgusting sweaty bra for a free new Nike one) which is one of the weirdest things I have seen as a race perk.
• The half marathon (probably two thirds or more of the field) split off around mile 12, but the marathon rejoins it around their mile 13 (marathon mile 16).  Marathoners got to run pretty much past the finish (marathon and half finish at the same spot) with the knowledge that we needed to run about 10 more miles.
• There is plenty of water/Nuun stations and a few Cliff Shot Blocks/Luna Bar stations.  I picked up Cliff Shot Blocks when available, but I was very glad to have carried my sports beans or I would not have had enough to eat.
• Even as a runner you have to pay for the shuttle bus to take you back to Union Square after the race.  I think $20 is a bit steep for runners to have to pay.  There may be a better alternative to get back to Union Square, but we didn't bother to figure it out.
• The NWM expotique (so fancy) is not the type of expo you would find at other races.  Do not expect there to be booths selling shoes, nutrition or other things a runner might be interested in buying at an expo.  There is one small tent selling Gu/fuel and a few other things like gloves or fuelbelts outside the main tent.  It was like the red-headed step-child of the expo and I think they only added it because people complained in the past.  Also, it was a very good idea for us to get our numbers on Friday.  Saturday we went to Niketown to get a shirt for my sister and there was an insane line for number pick-up.
• Either the live runner tracking is terrible or my sister's friends and I are not very bright.  We could not figure out how to track her (we wanted to know approximately where she was on the course) when we were looking for her at the end.
• There are a lot of men who run this race.  A lot.
• There was good crowd support, especially at the cheer stations and at the finish.  The best sign I saw was the one below which was when I was was heading up one of the hills between miles six and seven (a very good time to be getting  a laugh or two).

I love me some Ryan Gosling

Diva's Half Marathon 2012 (Long Island) Race Report

The one word I would use to describe this race is "fun".  I did this race last year, so I knew what to expect going in.

The race starts and finishes in Eisenhower Park on Long Island, some of the course is pretty, some not so pretty (hello, prison on the highway).  It's fairly flat (good for a PR), but very crowded at the start so if you line up anywhere except for the front you spend quite a lot of time dodging people (not so good for a PR).

I ran the race with my friend Sam, who seems to be my go-to-girl for races this summer.  I wasn't running for time since the Nike Women's Marathon was the following Sunday and I hadn't really been training.  Sam is training for the Philadelphia Marathon so she wasn't planning to go all out on this race either, but she wanted to finish in less than two hours, so we kept this goal in mind while we were running.

It was a beautiful day and we were surrounded by about a thousand women... all wearing pink.  I kid you not.  This race is literally a sea of pink.  Good luck on spotting any of your friends if they are in pink.  At one point near the end of the race I was talking to this one woman next to me for about two minutes before I realized it wasn't Sam, but some other lady wearing a pink shirt and black capris.  I was wearing blue.  I am not a pink girl at all.

I had a super fantastic time running and chatting with Sam.  I really enjoyed the enthusiastic crowd support, especially the three men who were dressed up as very interesting looking ladies (of the night, I think).  I saw them three times (those girls really got around) and they were so funny. 

The highlights of the race were at the end.  Around mile 12 you run through a tiara and boa (yes, pink) station and getting glammed up for your finisher picture.  The boa is a bit annoying because it flops around while you are running, but I think it's a cute idea.  When you cross the finish line you get a glass of champagne (I chose the ginger ale alternative), a rose, and a medal from a shirtless, buff fireman.  The finisher's medal at this race is probably the biggest and nicest one that I have ever seen at any race.  It is truly blinged out.

The Noggin's monkey modeling my bling

I crossed the finish line of this race with Sam laughing and smiling, which never happens to me.  i'm never the person with their arms raised and a huge smile at the end, but this time I was.  I loved the whole experience (Thanks, Sam!) and would definitely recommend this race to anyone, especially as a first time half marathon.  You have to do it with a girlfriend though, it makes the experience so much better.

Don't make fun of my crazy race outfit - I get enough of that from the Russian

My only two criticisms of the race are no number pick-up race morning and no gu/fuel/whatever on the race course.  The first point means that if you, like me, don't live on Long Island then you have to drive across Manhattan twice in one weekend (SO not recommended for anyone who, like me, has any form of road rage).  I really don't understand why there is traffic on 495 on Long Island at all times of the day (even early morning on a Saturday).  The second point means that you have to be really prepared and carry your own fuel during the race, which is not that big of a deal, but I think it's nice when a longer race at least offers this to the participants.

Overall a very positive experience.  I will probably be back again next year, unless it conflicts with another race.

I'll be back...

Due to some unforeseen delays in our kitchen renovation project, the Russian, Noggin, I, and the furballs have been trapped in our master bedroom sans computer for the last month (hence the no blogging).  Well, that nightmare is coming to an end this weekend and I plan to be back with a (pretty small) vengeance.  In the last month - post Pumpkinman - I have been mostly sitting on my behind getting fat, but when not doing that I ran the Diva's Half-marathon (not on my race calendar) and the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco.  Full race reports and pictures to come soon of those, but before that happens (and my computer gets reconnected) here is a sneak peak.

Pumpkinman Half-Iron 2012 Race Report

Let me just start with the disclaimer that this blog will have (almost) no pictures from:

• Before the race: We made it to the race location barely in time to register, set up and get down to the athlete meeting at the swim start.
• During the race: The Russian and I were both racing and the Noggin stayed with friends in Cambridge, MA for the day so there were no fans (super or otherwise) to take pictures.
• After the race: I can only describe my state after the race as "please help me" so there was no real desire on my part to go the transition area, get my camera and take pictures at that point.  The Russian was also suffering so I cut him some slack in that department too.

For those who aren't interested in the long version of the race report, here's the quick wrap-up.

• Pre-race: Due to the hip still feeling like it was out to get me and the lack of training over the last three to four weeks, I was seriously mentally preparing myself for my first DNF.
• The swim: I swam and (most importantly) lived. [Time 47:04]
• The bike: I biked the longest distance I have ever done in my life and it felt like at least half of it was the aero position. [Time 3:11:58]
• The run: This is where the "please help" me part comes in.  Safe to say that this ranks in the top 5 in terms of suffering in my life. Maybe top 3. [Time 2:08:34]
• Overall: So proud of myself for finishing and leaving it ALL out there. [Time 6:17:03]

If you're still reading, here's the more detailed (super long) version.

Pre-race
As the Russian (and everyone else who ever speaks to me) knows I was complaining about my hip for the 6 weeks prior to the race.  I thought I had it figured out with my visits to the chiro, but a sprint distance tri later it was back to square one.  The last two weeks before Pumpkinman I completely laid-off running and reduced the biking just hoping that a magic fairy would come along, sprinkle some dust on it and all would be better for the race.  Even up to the day before, I was feeling my hip when I walked up the stairs at our friends' house.

Shout out to K, J & L who hosted me, the Russian and the Noggin for the weekend.  This is the second time they have hosted us for a race weekend and they are so sweet, gracious and understanding about our (general and race specific) craziness.  In addition, this weekend they watched the Noggin for the day while the Russian and I were racing (our first race together since I got pregnant).  We can't thank them enough.  We promise next time we visit there will be no races involved.

The Swim [47:04]
The swim was mostly uneventful except for a few light kicks to the head (mine).  It was a double-loop triangle course.  Personally I would have preferred to have a single loop or point-to-point, but I think logistically this was easier for them.  This double-loop thing was a theme for the race and worked (the bike) better for me in some areas than others (the run).  I did vaguely better than I anticipated, though truthfully I had no real idea how long the distance should take me.

T1 [6:55]
The swim ends with a very steep run (I walked) up a hill into transition.  You should guess that there is going to be something wrong when a "challenge" is advertised for T1.  I did not rise to the challenge.  I took my sweet time making my way to transition and trying to remove my wetsuit.  Note to self - remember to put bodyglide on wrists so you don't look like a major idiot trying to wrestle your arms out of your too tight wetsuit. In addition to the hill climb and wetsuit fiasco, I lost time in T1 trying to get my Garmin to turn on since I wanted to know what my progress on the bike was.  Darn thing chose a heck of a time to crap out.

The Bike [3:11:58]
The bike course was beautiful, and fairly flat with some rollers.  The roads for the most part were really nice except for one bumpy section at the beginning of each loop. The double-loop really worked for me here because in the second loop I knew where I could push it in aero and where I could expect to be a bit slower. I spent quite a lot of time in aero because the roads were so flat and empty that I was comfortable with my bike handling.  I got passed by the elite men and women and a few other people rocking disc wheels (on their second loop).  I did a bit of passing during the bike, but was on the road by myself for most of the ride. I got passed at the very very end of the bike by a few people, but at that point I really didn't care.

While I was able to eat some on the bike everything made me feel gassy.  I guess I am not used to digesting while working that hard on the bike.  Part of my plan had been to use Gatorade Endurance for calories in the bike, but that was somewhat derailed when I lost my second water bottle about halfway through.  I am not -  I repeat not - skilled at handling things while I am riding.  My water bottle from my last olympic tri is only the latest casualty (sad face).  At that point I realized that I really needed to pick up something else to drink.  Luckily, I was only 5 or so miles from the aid station.  When I got there I first tried to get one on the go by slowing down and trying to grab a bottle.  Instead I knocked it out of the poor girl's hand and screaming, "Sorry!".  I ended up stopping my bike at the far end of the aid station and getting a water bottle there. That worked much better, though I probably should have grabbed a Gatorade instead.  I definitely underfueled on the bike, which would come back and bite me in the butt big time on the run.

T2 [2:31]
Completely uneventful, though I was obviously moving slowly at this point.

The Run [2:08:34]
Starting out on the run I knew that I was going too fast, but could not make myself slow down. I had an unalterable desire to just get this thing done with. Due to my Garmin issues I didn't know how fast I was going, but I knew it was way too fast. My completely unsustainable pace lasted for all of a mile and a half, at which point I hit the first hill, which I walked up. The run was also a double-loop (out and back), which I figured out soon after the hill and roundly cursed once I realized I would be hitting that hill again. The only benefit to this format was that I was able to see (and kiss) the Russian three times.  That was nice.

The run pretty much went like this for the first ten miles. Run almost as hard as I can until I have no juice (thank you poor nutrition on the bike).  Give myself permission to walk the next 30-60 seconds.  Rinse and repeat.  I also gave myself permission to walk at the hills (of which it seemed there were more than a few), which meant I was running mostly on the downhills (ouchie on the quads). In the last two and half miles there was the added fun of my lower back spasming.  Prior to the first spasm I really felt like I was on course to hit 6:15, which was my super-secret-before-hip-injury goal (more on this later).  Even after the first spasm hit I still felt like it was just possible for me to hit this goal during miles 11 and 12 - mile 13, not so much.  To give you a point of reference, I was internally comparing the back spasms to labor pains (the difference in these two situations being that for the majority of my labor I had drugs).  Sorry to the people that were around me in the last few miles where I was moaning like a laboring cow.  The last mile I was mostly walking, except for the last hundred yards or so where I was running/about-to-fall-and-roll towards the finish line (Note: the chute to the finish line is down a grassy small incline.)

I crossed at the finish line at 6:17:03 with my chin pretty much glued to my chest (trying to alleviate the spasm in my back) and promptly doubled over in pain.  The Russian came up to ask me if I was okay, though I didn't recognize it was him (I was doubled over and staring at the ground) for a few minutes.  One day I am going to be one of those people that cross the finish line of an event like this with both arms in the air and a big smile. On a happy note, my hip did not bother me at all during the run.  It was probably feeling sorry for me because everything else hurt so much and decided to give me a break.

Post Race
I rested for a bit in the medical tent where they let me stretch and ice my back.  I also got some chicken broth, which was salty and warm (so nice).  I then got a very painful, but very helpful, massage/stretch of for my hips, back and quads.  The Russian and I rested a bit while eating our post-race thanksgiving dinner. We were too tired to walk up the hill to transition for me to get my camera so I didn't get any shots of the lovely lake, the awesome decorations (including scarecrows) or anything else.  We then headed back to Cambridge, where we had a delicious dinner with K, J & L (thanks again guys!).  After that we drove the four hours back to New Jersey.  Sitting in a car a total of 5.5 hours the day of a race like Pumpkinman - not recommended.

All in all, Pumpkinman was a fantastic race.  While I didn't love the double-loop swim and run, the bike was really really nice.  The scenery overall was lovely, the organization was great, and the volunteers so fantastic.  Big thanks to all those people out there on the course making it happen.  The t-shirts and other giveaways were great. I would recommend this race to anyone as a first half-iron and I am thinking I will be back to try to improve on my time and run experience.

Race Goals
Prior to my hip injury I was thinking that I would aim for a 6:30 finishing time, but once I started thinking I might not even finish, I felt that a more realistic goal would be 7:00.  Way back when I first started thinking about doing a half-iron (before the Noggin was a gleam in his father's eye) the Russian and I had made an agreement that I could have a puppy if I finished the half-iron in 6:15.  So my super secret-ideal-scenario goal has always been 6:15.  I didn't meet the cutoff in Pumpkinman, but the Russian agreed with me that he would spot me a few minutes since I was wrestling with this hip injury.  The point is, "It's puppy time!".  I did a (very) little dance at the end of the race , once we agreed that my 6:17 qualified me for a puppy.  Of course, said puppy will have to wait until we're no longer living in a small condo next to the city, but I earned me that puppy!

Love
This blog is about me, but wanted to put the love out there for the Russian who killed it in 5:41:56.  He is aiming for a 5:30 finish (maybe next year) and an Ironman sometime in the future.  The point is, I have give my love to the Russian who has been encouraging/kicking my butt on this whole half-iron adventure. Thanks, Babe.

On a last note - no way am I ever doing an Ironman.  I think the half-iron distance is my limit, one which I try again.

My lovely medal that says I finished a half-ironman (whoa that sounds weird).

Some perspective - (just) in time

In the last month I've been battling with a bad hip and a bad attitude.  I was depressed, anxious, sad, and angry that all of the hard work I had put in during the summer was going to be wasted because my training was coming to a standstill and my hip was likely to bother me during Pumpkinman and beyond (Hello, Nike Marathon). Truthfully, I was acting like spoiled brat because I wasn't getting my way.  This is behavior I should recognize, since I deal with a three-year-old every day, but somehow I just didn't see it that way.

This weekend turned that attitude on its ridiculous head.  There were a number of things that helped set me straight, but the first was that I spent the day on Sunday with the Russian--just the two us.  Just the two of us.  That doesn't happen much.  We had lunch, watched a movie, laughed, and just plain enjoyed ourselves.  It probably seems weird that this is momentous for me. And, it is weird. With our busy work schedules, with a Noggin to look after, and both of us training for a half-ironman, there never seemed to be much time for that sort of thing.

What the day made me realize was that the training was sucking the enjoyment out of my life in other areas.  I was so focused on getting my training in and then on what I viewed as the colossal failure of my body (the hip injury) that I wasn't seeing what I was giving up to be doing this race.  And what might that be?

1. Sleep = At the peak of my training I was sleeping 4-6 hours a night.  Personally, this is not enough for me to function like a normal human being. Not even close.
2. Quality time with my family - While I would get up at 4 am (even on Saturdays) to workout and be done fairly early, my schedule would make me tired and cranky the rest of the day.  More power to you parents who can be the kind, supportive, engaged parents your kid deserves on little to no sleep.
3. Quality time to myself - My time to myself involved sweating, pain, and/or ice, but not so much enjoyment.  Not what I would call QT.

I guess the point is that doing races (at least for those of us who don't expect to win) should be at least just a tiny little bit fun.  The Russian has been telling me for weeks now (since the bad attitude started) that I should be enjoying the training, and that otherwise the whole thing is pointless.  Of course since he is never right and I am supremely stubborn, I've been wallowing instead of listening.  I've been running when I should have been resting my hip.  I've been unhappy instead of enjoying the summer before the Noggin goes to preschool.

While I don't think it's silly to care about your training or your race performance, it is silly to care beyond what it is really worth. Of course reaching your goals and improving yourself is important (I truly believe that), but it's really just not the be all and end all.

I've got a bit of the tunnel vision thing going on, so I have to remind myself to keep this idea front and center - there are so many things more important than a race.  So I hug my Noggin and I kiss my Russian and thank my lucky stars that the worst thing I'm facing is that I have a bad race next Sunday.

Oh - and I'm finally resting the hip (though it evilly doesn't seem to improving with rest).

Me say "baaaaa"

Sometimes I think that I'm such a trusting baby sheep when it comes to fitness trends. I trust every shepherd (competent or not) to herd me to green grasses and better fitness. Witness my obsession with compression (ha ha, that rhymed..), the total gym that sat in my basement for years, my collection of workout DVDs (hello, P90X that's almost never been used), among many many other examples. Well, this week it's all about the K-tape.

About four or five weeks ago I started experiencing some pain in my left hip whenever I ran. I started seeing a chiropractor (Dr. Frank) who has been helping me with stretching, exercises, e-stim, the whole deal. This week he suggested we try K-tape (also known as kinesio tape)to help with the healing process. If you want to know more about it, check out www.kinesiotaping.com. Though there are a lot of claimed benefits, none of them have been substantiated by what some people call "evidence". Regardless, I'm desperate and anything that could possibly help will be accepted by me.

Okay - let's get real. I've secretly thought it would be cool to try it since I saw Kerry Walsh sporting it in Beijing. Nobody had to twist my arm

Today Dr. Frank taped me up and it wasn't pretty...

Besides the overall hideousness, you will probably notice that my tape is a boring nude color. No fun blue or pink or bad-ass black tape. Nope, just blend-in-with-your-cellulite skin colored stuff. The Russian took some other pictures and they were even less flattering than this one, though it may be hard to imagine without photographic evidence (of which there will not be any). Here he is making me laugh by telling me what I looked like in the other pictures.  Did I say the tape blends in to your cellulite? Strike that and replace with highlight.

While a bright color might have been fun, the function is the important thing here. Truthfully, I was really hoping the tape would somehow help with healing the hip in time for Pumpkinman. I had my fingers and toes crossed for a miracle, but listen this isn't 34th street and we're not even in Manhatten.

To test the tape out, I went for a ten minute run at a slow pace on the treadmill. If I'm being truthful, I didn't feel like the tape was doing anything. I still was feeling pain, fatigue and all manner of weird sensations around my hip area that I have had on and off for the last month.  I don't think I'm buying the hype at this point, but I'm willing to give it a little more time. The tape is supposed to last for a few days (through showers) so I'll see if there is any improvement on my Saturday run.

On another note - someone who looks bad-ass without the black K-tape...

We were sitting on our stoop and the Noggin just got down on the ground and started doing elevated push-ups. Something I'm pretty sure I cannot do. No, I am not yelling at him to give me ten, even though the Russian says that's what it looks like I'm doing.

Trifitness Women's Triathlon and Duathlon Race Recap

I'm not sure why a small triathlon in nowhere Norwalk, Connecticut had to start at 6:30 in the morning on a Sunday, but there it is. In order to make the drive in time for the 6:00 am transition closing, I had to wake up at stupid-thirty in the morning.

According to the Russian I woke up 10 minutes after we went to sleep to ask him to set his alarm too so I wouldn't oversleep (he was not thrilled). Then, I apparently jumped out of bed an hour later, turned on the lights and said it was time for me to go. Again, the Russian was less than thrilled. It took me a few minutes to admit that I was confused and go back to bed. Truthfully, I vaguely remember these two incidents only because he told me about them the next day. I do remember waking up almost every hour thinking that it was time to get up. The short of it is that I get really anxious when I know I need to wake up for something. The anxiety was compounded by the fact that I was meeting Sam to head up together. When I have to meet someone, that makes me REALLY anxious.

Sam and I headed out around 4:15, which was our planned time. There were lots of drunk people roaming the streets of Hoboken when we left. I believe they were going home, like any sane person should be doing at that time of the morning, rather than leaving their nice bed and nice husband. Seemed like a good idea two months ago. The GPS took us through Manhatten, which we didn't want to do, but didn't know how to avoid. Here's what I learned from that experience:

• There are a ridiculous number of people awake and driving in NYC at that time of the morning on Sunday. 
• These people, despite their early morning habits, are less than ideal drivers.  I believe I was cut off at least twice on 95.
• I am so distanced from reasons for staying up that late that I was trying to figure out why everyone was up so early. 

Anyhow, we made it to the race and got in line to get our stuff. That's right - stuff. No pre-stuffed packets, just your number, chip and a t-shirt. We were in line at 5:50 with about 30 women behind us. No chance that transition was closing at 6:00. By the time I got my transition area set up and my wetsuit on (easier than last time with my currently short nails), it was 6:20. I missed the athlete meeting where they told us important things, like where we should swim. Despite the delay with the registration check-in, the race still started at 6:33. There were women running down the beach to get in our wave (the 39 and under). Sam quickly briefed me on the two buoys I should site for and we were off.

This is what Sam looks like at 5:30 Sunday morning.  Yes, she is that cheerful.

The Swim (Time - 13:56)
The swim was 800 meters and it was a run off the beach start. It was pretty crowded until we rounded the first buoy. There was lots of people grabbing me and I'm sure I did my fair share too. Once it spread out a bit it was better, but I ended up swimming next to a woman for the last third who must have thought I was stalking her. Despite me actually not wanting to ride her hip, that's what happened to the very end. Whoever you are, I'm sorry I was crowding you. totally didn't mean to Overall, the swim felt okay and I wasn't feeling ill when I got out of the water, which was already a plus.

T1 - 3:03 
I could not get my wetsuit off because the timing chip was so huge.  It took me about 30 seconds to figure out that I needed to take the timing chip off first.


The Bike (Time - 37:01)
Not sure if I was thinking when I biked for an hour and a half Friday, but let me tell you that my legs were asking me, Why?" Not only did I feel like I was moving backwards, the thousand or so ladies that passed me were probably thinking that I was. Additionally, my front shifter was misbehaving so I had to stay in my small front ring the whole time. I am a classic masher and ALWAYS ride in the big ring in the front unless I have serious climbing to do. So I was spinning fast and going nowhere fast. Thank goodness they shortened the bike to 9 miles. I seriously could not have taken more of that.

T2 - 1:07
Nothing special, nothing terrible.

The Run (Time- 22:58)
As soon as I left transition, my hip started to hurt and continued the whole way. Running slow didn't help with the pain so I tried to run fast. I was glad to be able to go a decent pace (crushing it if I do say so myself) despite the pain. Overall the run was a confusing two-ish laps that was being directed by a 6 year old in a critical spot. Lucky for me that there were people to follow. The race ended on the beach, which I was not excited about since I hate the feeling of sand in my shoes, but I was glad the whole thing was over.

Post Race 
I got a painful massage/stretch of hip that didn't help as far as I could tell, some fruit on a stick, hummus, coffee and yogurt. Yeah, it seemed a liitle odd to me too.

Post Race Feelings
I am anxious, frustrated, disappointed, annoyed, and (insert negative emotion here).  This race did a lot to make me question my theoretical ability to do Pumpkinman.  I seem to have no bike fitness and pain in my hip.  The mechanical bike problem I was able to fix later that day (so no excuses there), but the other non-mechanical problems have got me worried.  With less than two weeks, things are not looking good...

Sam still cheerful after the race (she crushed it).

She even made me smile, though I'm sure you can tell it was a bit forced...

Here's something to make you and me smile. Furbaby-1 decided all her own to dress up as a ninja and show her white belly.  Don't call animal cruelty on us please.