cheers, jeers and miscellania

• Lance Armstrong was staying at the hotel we stayed at. He was walking out with a couple of friends as we were walking in. Nobody even realized it was him ...except for us. I immediately turned to the J-man and said, "that's Lance." Then I said, "his calves are a lot smaller than i thought they'd be." Some people notice nice butts, i notice calves. i guess in his case, size doesn't matter. 

• Some of you know from my blog that i was adopted at birth. i don't know a whole heck of a lot about my biological roots but i do know that i was born in Winter Haven. Winter Haven and Haines City (where the race was at), are pretty much almost one in the same as they are so close to each other. As we were driving through Winter Haven, I looked over at the J-man and said, "thank god i didn't have to grow up here." there is pretty much nothing there to make note of. at one time, it was the home of circus world and the boardwalk and baseball theme parks. both parks have since met their demise. once you exit off of I-4, it looks like a place where time has stood still for ages.  it appeared very run down and economically poor. I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to have had such a great childhood (in Tampa), yet it made me sad too because I couldn't help thinking about my Mom and Dad, the one's who raised me. i miss them so much. 

• On race morning, I had some time to kill after getting body marked and setting up transition so J-man and I found a place to sit and people watch, which is always a hoot. As I was sitting there lathering on the sunscreen, I overheard this chic as she is walking by, talking about the HUGE alligator she saw yesterday in the lake we’re about to swim in. I look over at J-man with eyes wide open and said, “why did I have to just hear that?” I did my best to get that visual out of my head of the alligator swimming underneath me. I won’t lie though, I did think about the alligator for like 5 seconds, then I was fighting for space the rest of the time so my mind was preoccupied thank goodness. 

• I forgot to mention in my race report how awesome the residents along the run course were. there were a few on the first mile of the run loop (aka: the big climb) who came out with their water hoses and sprayed us down. it was so awesome. i made sure to run by them every loop. i didn't care that my shoes were all wet and squishy inside. maybe that's what saved me from getting any hot spots or burns on the bottom of my feet. some people really did have burns on their feet ...true story. 

• I only pee'd one time the entire race and that was on the run IN A PORT-O-POTTY, not in my shorts, ok?

• Speaking of pee’ing, you know how sometimes a world record time in a running race has an asterisk to note that it was wind aided? Does it matter that when I pee’d on the bike, it was rain aided? Does it still count? I feel like maybe I cheated. Did I? 

• Leg hugs were in order on Saturday at the race expo. The leg hug thing is something that The Discombobulated Runner came up with last year and it was a hit so we decided to make it a ritual. Where she came up with this is still a mystery to me but I loved the idea. Here is how it works, when you meet a blogger buddy for the first time, you have to hug their leg and take a picture to prove it. They in turn have to hug your leg back with picture evidence. As crazy as it sounds, it became a hit so we continue the tradition. Here is my evidence:

• I hope everyone has a lovely memorial day weekend. I am doing 2 back to back centuries, one on Saturday and a completely different 100 mile route on Sunday. I will be well over 300+ miles for the week …yee-haw! 

• Have you noticed all the frozen yogurt places popping up? I do ♥ me some good frozen yogurt every now and then and my favorite flavor is ooey, gooey cinnamon bun. don’t judge me!

• Part of me is sad that florida 70.3 is over but the other part of me that needed a break from the hard core training is very happy. I like waking up and doing whatever I feel like doing. I'm sure I'll be itching to ramp it up again soon but for now, i shall enjoy the no structure schedule. 

oh crap, it's time to ride ...much love and peace out!

ironman 70.3 florida race report

the pelican bling

the swim

lots to say about the swim. i know without a doubt that had this swim not been rerouted, i would have knocked it out in 35 minutes. i'm not the betting kind but i would have put down some serious cash on that. unfortunately, due to a drought, the lake had a lot of shallow spots so the swim had to be reconfigured from the usual out, over and back rectangular pattern to an out, over, in, over, out, over, in. make sense? it was like the letter "W." in a nutshell, it was a royal mess of turns but it was what it was and i'd rather have a swim than no swim. i had no desire to do a run/bike/run. i'm not sure if all the turns had anything to do with this, but it was kinda rough out there. lots of contact. i thought with a wave start this would not be too much of an issue. i don't remember having that much grabbing, pulling, jostling for position at ironman florida and that was a mass start. can anyone explain this to me? 

as i was standing in the knee deep muck waiting for my wave to start (i was in the 6th wave), i had to laugh as i looked down at what i would describe as disgustingly dirty water. i've been spoiled swimming in bodies of water that you can actually see the bottom. oh well, my mantra is just swim like you are at the pool and that's what i tried to do despite the zig-zag mess of turns. 

swim time: 44:04

T1: 3:14

the bike

i love this part as most of you know. as usual, you have your wind, rough roads, and a few unsafe riders who nearly take you out (yes, i almost got taken out at mile 3). this course was hilly and it was hot. my goal going into this race was to not be as conservative on the bike as i have been in past races. i told myself to go all out and i pushed as hard as i could the entire 56 miles. i did my usual fig newtons early on, a gel at halfway, 2 bottles of water and a bottle of powerade with nuun. 

bike time: 2:41:53 / 20.76 avg.

T2: 2:36 

the run

i thought about this 13.1 miles all week and knew it was going to be hot. hotter than what i am used to running in. my strategy was to manage each mile, one at a time. i knew that there would be aid stations at approximately every mile, so i decided that i would quickly walk through each one. i made sure to grab whatever sport drink they had, water, ice, and a sponge and then upward and onward. let me just say that the magic trick to surviving a run when it is as hot as it was, is to dump ice in your jogbra. sorry guys, not sure what you can do to keep the ice in. maybe you can wear a manzere? how does Seinfeld always work his way into my posts? ok, back to the run ...so this is the routine i did every single mile and it worked like a charm. as much as i hate running in the hellish heat, i know it can be done successfully.

run time: 1:52:07 / 8:33 avg

total race time: 5:23:54

i am happy with my time. it placed me 8th in my age group out of 92. i will be back next year for sure. 

much love and peace out!

i did it!

before i even tell you what i did, let me take you back to 1997 as i was training for my first marathon. most of my training was done solo so i wasn't exposed to the typical runner's antics, like snot rockets, peeing out in the open, changing clothes in your car, etc ... fast forward 6 months to January 1998, to the start of the disney marathon, my first marathon. i was in total shock for the first mile or two as i saw men and women just running off to the side and relieving themselves and not even being discrete about it. i thought to myself, oh my god i would never do that and to this day i haven't, but, let me clarify. i can pee outside just not in the wide open or while people can see me. in order to pee, you need to relax, and just knowing i can be seen, makes me tense up so forget about being able to go. give me a tree or wall to hide behind and i'll let it flow.

****side note****

to all of my non-athletic friends, my family, my beautiful husband (hi honey! sorry i couldn't tell you to your face that i did this while we were riding), who may read this, i know you may be slightly appalled at first when you read the rest of this post but all the cool kids are doing it, so why can't i? isn't that a title of an album??

back to the story ...so over the last couple of years that i've been doing tri's, i have had many conversations with my compadres via email, twitter, and facebook about peeing while you are riding your bike, specifically while in a race. this really is a common topic among us tri-geeks. 95% of them encouraged me to DO IT! they even sent me instructions and tips on how to go about it. imagine that! so my excuse is that my friends made me do it. if you'd like to read some more humor on this particular subject, check out this article HERE.

not only did i pee on my bike once, but i did it twice. i think riding in the rain had something to do with it. fortunately, i wore my road shoes and not my tri shoes. raise your hand if you know what an underpass of an interstate smells like, where all the homeless people gather.  unfortunately, my road shoes now smell like this. good news though ...based on the most recent fabreeze commercials, this should not be a problem, right? fabreeze can kill the odor of dead fish and decomposing bodies according to the commercial. 

a little sunshine and a lot of fabreeze should cure the stink, right?

ok, enough of the pee talk, let's move on to more important stuff like lots of fun things going on this weekend like IRONMAN TEXAS. i want to wish Jason at CTER  and Heidi an awesome race! you both will have so many stalkers sending you good race mojo the entire day and we are all there with you. tomorrow is YOUR day!

here in florida, we have the FLORIDA Ironman 70.3 in haines city going on. what makes it a little more special is that Lance Armstrong will be there racing, which i think is pretty cool. i'm looking forward to meeting Summer, a blogger that is like my long lost little sister. you'd think based on all of our email and text messages that we've known each other our whole lives. i also get to watch JC (not my JC) and Jenny rock their first 70.3! and lastly, i have to settle a bet with this guy on Sunday ...i'll be coming for you on the bike mister! a great weekend indeed.

KC bib#425 and Mandy reporting for duty on Sunday!

much love and peace out!

shop til ya drop

i hate to go shopping! ever since i was a kid, i hated it. be it groceries, clothes, furniture, and especially christmas shopping. there is one exception though ...i love to shop online, especially on ebay. i have an eye for awesome deals and i wait like a predatory bird, watching and waiting until the last 15 seconds and then i pounce on it! deal done, i got the winning bid!

within the last year or two, i have bought 3 killer bike frames on ebay. 2 were road bike frames, which the J-man has built up into fabulous racing machines and the other is my beloved cannondale, atom green raven, a mountain bike frame, which is still in the planning phases. i keep telling him he needs to do this for a living. i swear he is that good! and a straight up perfectionist at that. sometimes it drives me crazy. but i digress ...

last week i got bit by the ebay shopping bug (AGAIN!) and found some SAAAWHEEET deals. check it out:

pearl iZUMi tri top, new with tags from Wheat Ridge Cyclery in Colorado. got it for $22 flat with free S & H.
i was sad they didn't have any matching shorts left.

 

this beauty should be in my hands by the end of the week. picked it up for $45 total.

sugoi tri top and bottom from Keswick Cycles in Pennsylvania for $50 w/free S & H. i already wore it on a 72 mile ride in the hills on saturday and LOVE it!

if you'd like me to be your personal shopper, please contact me, provide me with your credit card number and a wish list and i will gladly shop for you and i'll do it for free!

much love and peace out!