St. George Ironman 70.3 May 7, 2016

Just yesterday, my Salt Lake Tri Club family members and I got to take part in the St. George Half Ironman.  It's still hard for me to wrap my head around the experience I had there!  I'll try to describe and document all my thoughts.

Thursday, May 5, 2016
I was able to get off early on Thursday afternoon to get last minute items packed.  I didn't get to see my hubby before I left, which I was a little sad about, but he had an exam to take that day.  After checking and double checking my bags, I headed down to pick up my teammate, Gerald.  We got his bike rack situated on my Civic, our bags situated, and then headed to Adobe to pick up our teammate, Eric, who both hadn't met yet.

We then made our trek down to St. George together, getting to know each other!  We got to our houses/campsites, and then went out to dinner at Barista's in Hurricane.  Their burgers there were delicious!  Afterward, we wound down for the night to prepare for race check-in and other such pre-race prep in the morning.

Friday, May 6, 2016

We headed over to Ironman Village in downtown St. George to attend our pre-race meeting and to check in (for those who arrived late Thursday).  It was so awesome to see the hustle and bustle of so many athletes preparing for this race.       My heart was racing, but I was excited to be participating in Ironman!  I had been psyching myself out for awhile, since I hadn't really trained much (my last half marathon was September of 2015, and two friends and I decided to put together a relay team at the end of March... eek), and I missed the run at camp two weeks ago!  Everyone was saying what a hard run course it was, and that "Turtle Hill" was pretty brutal.  Anyway... I met up with Michelle and Chanda at the Village.  Gerald and Eric already went to check in, and we girls ended up doing a little shopping at the Ironman shop.  I think I spent a little too much, but I couldn't help it... it was Ironman!  We eventually made it over to check-in to get our team situated.  We originally had my friend, Brandy, on the bike, but because of an irritated injury, we had to find a new biker for our team.  Thankfully, Chanda offered to take her spot.  As we approached check-in, we ran into more of our teammates!  It was like a big reunion away from home!

This was it... check-in time!  Needless to say, Michelle, Chanda, and I were all pretty much freaking out!  Could you blame us?  We totally signed up for this on a whim!  But at this point, there was no turning back. 

SLTC Bee Babes at athlete check-in

We got our swag bags and then headed back to Sand Hollow for the team open water swim and to check Chanda's bike into transition.  When we got there, the storm clouds started to roll in, and it got super windy.  And then it started to rain.  We got out of there and dispersed to finish preparing for the race.  I got dressed into nice clothes and prepared to go to the temple.  I know it sounds weird, but I wanted to find some peace among the chaos and to quiet my soul.  We stopped by town square/T2 one more time to drop off gear for Gerald and Eric, and  I picked up some Rip Laces.  Then Gerald took me over to the St. George Temple so that I could visit and go to an endowment session.  It was just what I needed.  I felt so much peace there.  And the temple was small, simple, and beautiful.  Gerald picked me up, and we grabbed some groceries for dinner.  We all took a team house picture together, too! 

It was fun having so many of our teammates together under one roof.  We finished packing up gear, going over our race plans, applying tattoos, and then got to bed.  Nighty-night for all the triathletes!

Saturday, May 7, 2016

5 am wakeup call!  It's race day!  All those racing individually were off to T1 to get final gear checked and wetsuits on before the pro wave went off.  Chanda got to our place, and then she, Michelle, and I headed over to Sand Hollow.  When we got there, they were announcing that "Light Pink Wave Caps" needed to be in the water.  We had a little bit of a panic attack, as our wave had light pink swim caps.  But they were calling for Age Group Males with that cap color.  Michelle really had a rush of anxiety, as she was our swimmer.  Chanda ran over to get the rest of her gear situated, but was kind of getting kicked out of T1, since transition closed right before we got there.  Michelle got her wetsuit on, and then we headed over to swim start to see her go off.

SLTC Bee Babes at Swim Start

Chanda and I waited and chatted, and she was trying to strategically plan out her nutrition, etc on the bike.  The storm clouds then started to get dark, the wind picked up, and it started raining.  And for those of you who know Utah rain... it's cold!!!!!!  We waited for Michelle to get in.  She came in a bit later than she expected due to the choppiness in the water after the wind picked up.  It was quite strong that there were white caps in the water.  Chanda donned the timing chip, and off she went.

Michelle and I headed back to the house, along with Jonathan, to dry our wet clothes and shoes and eat before heading to T2.  We were tracking Chanda on the race tracker.  We expected her to finish around 1ish, but Michelle happened to watch the tracker, and Chanda had already pinged mile 30... it was already 11:30!  I freaked out, grabbed my gear, and drove into town.  Mind you, our house was near the reservoir!  Traffic was a bit pokey getting into town, and I had no idea where the parking garage was.  Some streets were blocked off, so I had to figure out a place.  I finally found a parking space, and started running as fast as I could towards T2.  But then some of the streets were blocked from the run, so I had to find a way through. Once I got to the relay pen, I had to pee really bad.  However, the other relayers were telling me that the volunteers weren't letting the relay teams use the one at bike-in, or the ones at run-out.  There was one on the outside of transition, or flushable toilets outside of ironman village (which I passed on the way in, with a seriously long line).  I tried to go to the one outside transition, which was in the Event Staff area, but there was someone in there who was taking quite a long time.  I wasn't sure what to do, as I expected Chanda to be there any minute.  With her pinging mile 40, sooner than I expected, she should have been there somewhere around 12:15-12:30.  So I waited it out.  The volunteers told me that I could use the bathrooms at run-out only when our biker got back in (insert pissed off face here.  Ironman seriously needs port-a-potties near the relay pen of T2... not even joking).  We saw a lot of our teammates come in.  Some were having a rough race, and were freezing from the rain on the ride, but were powering through it!  Chanda finally got in around 1ish.  She was telling us that she flatted out after mile 40, and it was her rear wheel, which is such a pain to fix.  We were cutting it close to our time to give me enough buffer time to finish the race, so I headed off after I got my chip on my ankle.  I gave her a hug and headed off.  I had already been holding my pee for over and hour, so my first stop after run out was at the port-a-potty.  As soon as I went off on the run, a pain started on the bottom of my foot between my big toe and second toe on my right foot.  I distracted the pain by thinking of other things, and enjoying the atmosphere, the  moment, and the beauty of my surroundings.

As I headed out of town, I started the uphill of the race.  The wind picked up making it really hard for me to breathe.  I felt myself start to wheeze.  I was grateful at this point to have my inhaler on hand.  I took that, and it started to work right away.  I was also telling this lady on the run that I wasn't sure what was worse... being fatigued after swimming and cycling, and then having to run, or to be waiting around, getting cold, and then going for the run.  The next few miles were a gradual uphill, and then I reached "Turtle Hill."  I ran, quite slow (get it, Turtle?  Yup... that's why they call it that), and then did a bit of a run-walk to save my legs/calves for the rest of the race.  I caught up to this one lady, Debra, whom I ran and chatted with for awhile.  She ended up stopping at the next aid station, so I went on ahead.  I was feeling great... I kept a nice pace for awhile, and then realized I was breathing shallow.  I made sure, at that point, to continue getting as much as as I could.  Before I knew it, I was at the half way point.  There were a few turn arounds on a downhill.  Mile 6 and then mile 8 were down and then up on the same hill, which was a little bit of a cruel joke.  I ran into many of my teammates.  I loved seeing my friend, Tamra, as she sent me some good vibes and told me ho proud of me she was!  That totally gave me such a warm feeling, and hope!  We then had to head back, with one more uphill at Turtle Hill.  Debra ran ahead at that point.  I told her she needed to finish strong!  And then I started to feel it... my foot was starting to hurt, and I felt cramping pangs in my calves.  I walked a little bit to try to stave them off.  I finally started to feel a bit better and ran until about mile 11.5 when both calves cramped up.  It really slowed me down.  I stopped for a seconding to apply pressure and try to get them to loosen up.  I was so close to the finish.  At this point, I was on track to finish on time.  I could have walked the rest of the course if I wanted to, but I just wanted to get in and be done.  My cramps finally eased up, and I was able to run.  I made it back into downtown, and made a break for the finish.  I took a second to walk.  There was an older lady that passed me, but I wasn't about to let her beat me!  So I picked up, and hit a sprint at the straight away, and crossed the finish line!  By the way, my dragon mascot, Xena, ran with me the whole way!  I was so happy to be done.  I expected to take the whole 3.5 hours to finish, considering my lack of training, but I ended up finishing (according to my Garmin) 5 minutes after my goal time of 2:45 (and without clocking time in the portapotty).  I was happy! 

Overall, this experience had been a great one! Our team definitely learned a lot during the whole process of the relay team.  I had run a relay before, but not one to this capacity and length of triathlon.  There is a lot of planning and strategy involved, as well as dependence and trust in one another.  I'm grateful that we got to be part of this grand event, and that we did better than we expected!  It's true that most of these events are mental, but the feeling of completing it is indescribable.  Thank you, Michelle & Chanda (and Brandy too), for making this an awesome experience for me... and for being just as crazy to sign up with me too!  Here's to our next crazy ideas and adventures!  Love you all!

T3 Telos Timp Tri - Relay - April 16, 2016

Team Sweat, Sparkle, and Sprint!  Jessica, Joyce, & Brandy!

It was a last minute decision... like many fun races are... to take part in this triathlon!  My great friends, Jessica and Brandy, decided to join me for a relay for this sprint triathlon down in Orem this past Saturday.

It was cold!  It wasn't supposed to be cold!  But for some reason, I either choose, or the cold weather tends to find me, for these crazy races!

I headed down to Sandy, to pick up Jess, and we cruised down to Orem.  I thought I was going to get pulled over a couple of times on the way there, as there were a lot of cops out on Saturday morning.  It was probably due to the heavy volume of people in Salt Lake for the Salt Lake City Marathon and Bike Tour happening that same morning.  I'm glad I got out in time before getting stuck! 

We got down to Orem, and boy was it cold!  They weren't allowing any of the athletes into the indoor areas either!  We set up transition, and did some warming up to stay warm (and then hid in our cars too). 

Before the race!

I don't know how, but I somehow talked Jess into running this relay with us!  She was a trooper in pushing through it, despite her recent trip to the hospital (two days before)!  This was her first time getting to experience a triathlon.  I've been slowly trying to convert her (bwahahaha... just kidding!  But for real... I'd love for her to join me)!  She ran into some of her friends from Addicts to Athletes, and I ran into one of my friends from the U (my friend, Thomas, who I worked with in the mouse-house at HCI, was there to support his wife, Katie)!  So funny how we ran into each other at a triathlon of all places!

National Anthem.

Anyway... we had the race meeting at 8:15am, and then Jess got ready to start us off with the run.  Oh... I failed to mention... it was a reverse triathlon - run, bike, swim instead of the regular swim, bike, run.  I found my teammate, Richard, who I haven't seen in quite some time.  He's been traveling for work, and doing some crazy, awesome triathlons overseas!

And off she went.  While I was waiting for her, I warmed up, and debated with myself on how much clothing I was going to wear.  The sun was warm, but I felt like I'd get cold on the bike.  Should I wear my leggings?  Or should I just got with my tri shorts?  Should I wear my SmartWool jacket?  Or just go with my driFit shirt?  Gloves? No gloves?  In the end I went with my tri shorts, no jacket, and no gloves.

It wasn't too long before she was coming back to transition and passing off the timing chip to me!

And then off I went.

For some reason I had trouble clipping in!  I realized shortly after I headed out that I should have warn those darn gloves!  Oh well... too late now!  The bike was a 3 loop course with a pretty intense uphill (well, more like 2 uphills) at the end of the loop!  I was the moron who didn't realize she didn't gear down to her lower ring on her first loop!  Can I just tell you how much my legs burned?  Yeah... I didn't make that same mistake the second and third loop around.  I noticed that I had a hard time catching my breath.  I think the cold air tends to affect my asthma a lot more than I'd like.  And my throat got all dry again, just like it did at Ice Breaker.  But I pushed through.  There were some people walking that hill, but I just refused to get off my bike!  I didn't care how long it took me! 

I finished a few minutes later than I expected to.  I would have finished in my estimated time had I not made that mistake on the first loop, and that hill... oh, that hill!

I tagged off to Brandy, who headed off to the pool for her the swim. 

The pool area was so hot, but it felt good after my hands froze on the bike!  Michelle showed up and came to cheer us on!  She had just gotten back to the area from the Salt Lake City Bike Tour!  We flip-flopped in race areas! 

Brandy was done in no time!  She rocked it!  She told us that she ended up in a head to head collision with another swimmer in the pool!  Ouch! 

We had a lot of fun!  It's kind of nice switching it up and running a relay instead of running the whole tri by yourself!  I'm glad Jess got to experience a little bit of tri life!  I hope she joins me for a triathlon soon!  We stuck around for awards, and most of the guys from SLTC made the podium!  So awesome! 

I love this sport!  I love it for all the friends I've made, for what it's made of me, and what I continue to learn about myself as I continue to participate!  Thank you, triathlon, for changing my life!

Ice Breaker Triathlon March 26, 2016

I originally signed up for this triathlon for the medal... and because I think I found my motivation and love for the sport again.  After a mentally draining running season last year, I decided to take a break.  I think I was experiencing what Matt Fitzgerald mentioned as depression, for an endurance athlete.  I almost didn't enjoy doing anything anymore.  I didn't want to run.  I didn't even want to sign up for a race.  I found more joy in antigravity fitness and other activities that didn't require rigorous training... until I ran Kearns Indoor tri series, and met more of my Salt Lake Tri Club family.  They are super supportive, and made me feel alive again! 

The last series of Kearns, which I didn't blog about, turned out to be great!  I felt better on the swim (although my distance stayed the same), but improved on the bike and the run.  I've progressively felts stronger through the series.  Which leads me to Ice Breaker.  Like I said, I signed up just to have the medal in my collection.  I hadn't really trained, but I figured I'd go for it anyway, being just a sprint and all.  I could manage that.  We got our tri kits the week of the race, and they turned out awesome!  I felt amazing to be fitting in this suit from all the weight I've been losing.  It's almost a little big!

Saturday, March 26, 2016
Race Day.

It snowed the night before, so the weather forecast expected a low of 32 that morning.  My training buddy, Alberto, came to pick me up and we headed down to American Fork for packet pickup.  As we drove down, we saw looming grey clouds above the area we were to be racing.  It just looked cold outside.

When we got to the race site, the wind was blowing.  It was freezing!  I'm just grateful there was no snow, unlike what the residents of Tooele were experiencing that morning. 

We got our packets and proceeded to set up transition.  We saw Chris...

And my running friend, Cevan (who was also the 2:40 pacer at the Dino Half last year, which I ran) was running his first tri!  We set up right next to each other!

Our bikes became friends too!  Meet Sparkle and Helga!

Being so cold and all, it was really difficult trying to figure out what to put out for transition.

I wasn't sure if I needed to leave my SmartWool gear out for the bike or not.  We finally caught up with Brandy too!  I'm a little sad that I didn't get more pictures with my tri team, but they know I've got much love for them!  SLTC, Baby!

Brandy and I got all tatted up and ready for the swim!

We headed into the pool, where we started our tri.  The water was nice and warm, but was a little too warm for me to breathe well.  Cevan and I swam next to each other for our 300 meters!  The run to T1 was so cold!  I was so cold, I just wanted to get on my bike and go.  I did forego my SmartWool leggings, but put on my jacket.  The bike felt great, with the exception of the big hill and my frozen feet.  I wished I would have found my inhaler before starting the race, because I felt like I couldn't slow my breathing, and my throat was so dry I couldn't swallow any spit to relax my throat.  We went for two 6 mile loops around the American Fork fitness center.  I felt quite strong on the flats.  My feet were freezing by the time I dismounted and ran into T2.  When I got back, Kenya and Landin (Arnett) happened to be heading out, and they noticed my helmet was backwards!  Hahahaha... that has never happened to me before!  I guess I was so cold that I just wanted to get everything on and get going, that I didn't even bother noticing that it was backwards!  I did feel, however, my helmet being a little loose during the second loop, but paid no mind.

After getting my shoes on, I decided to go without jacket.  The sun was out, so it was bound to warm up!  My feet, however, were still frozen blocks of ice.  It hurt to run.  I walked up the big hill, waiting for my feet to thaw out.  As soon as I got halfway up the hill, they started to warm up.  I began my run.  My legs felt heavy at first, but I kept going.  I did a bit of a run/walk for awhile, until my lungs felt ready to keep a steady pace.  I was trying to keep up with a man who had been in front of my for the run.  At some point, my body felt good enough to maintain a steady pace.  I ended up passing him.  I also caught up with Michelle!  I was so glad to see her!  She was doing great, but told me her legs were cramping (in the place that I usually cramp too - on the inner quads, right near the knee).  I kept going... and finally saw the finish line.  I checked my Garmin and picked up my pace.  I crossed the finish line with a chip time of 1:45. 

Checking my time from 2 years ago, I finished 12 minutes faster!  I was pretty excited about that!  I felt so much better too! 

A lot of my SLTC fam ended up making the podium!  Here's my friend, Andrew, taking second in his age group!

I waited for Alberto to finish up too!  So excited he joined me, even without training!  He's a beast!  This tri was just what I needed to really re-solidify my enjoyment of triathlon!  I'm signing up for more races! 

Thanks to my friends for being so crazy as to join me on this "Ice" Breaker!  And to my SLTC fam for being such a huge support in my tri life!

Gaining More Swimming Efficiency

Yesterday, I finally got to meet up with my tri teammate and friend, Erin, and learn how to swim more efficiently.  A set of circumstances had pushed our meeting out until now, but I'm glad we finally got to swim! 

Let me just say how amazing the results were.  In just a short amount of time, she has transformed my swim technique tremendously!  I must admit that I had to push my fear and pride aside to do so, but sometimes you just need to humble yourself to progress.  She made some adjustments in my stroke and timing which allowed me to swim so much faster!  I felt the difference too!  I can't wait to keep learning more and practicing so I can keep seeing more progress in my triathlon times and fitness!  Thanks so much, Erin!

Kearns Indoor Tri # 2 of 3 February 20, 2016

Kearns Indoor Tri #2 went really well!  It started out as a cold, cold morning! Thank goodness for it being indoors!

I felt like it was going to be one of those days where I was going to be going pretty slow.  That's okay though... I was just getting back into my groove.

The swim was decent.  I wasn't expecting much of anything, but I snagged one more length than the last tri.

Then on to the bike!  I had a few friends in later waves that happened to snap pics of me!

This go round, I ended up going a mile more than last time; and my legs weren't exhausted!  The walk over to the oval was short, but freezing!

R Adam Lee and I were a little late to the run... but I ended up gaining two more laps than the last time around.  And I ran the whole time!  Making sure not to schedule an intense, high-intensity workout the night before I'm sure helped!

9:00am Wave

Overall, I was really happy with my performance.  This one really got me excited about getting back into training.  I was so happy to catch up with some friends and teammates I haven't seen in awhile!  Can't wait until next month!

Short and sweet recap!  More next time!