A TRIumphant race
Racine Half Ironman
5:45:26
Swim 43:58 (1.2 miles)
T1: 5:07
Bike 2:51:01 (56 miles)
T2: 2:52
Run 2:02:28 (13.1 miles)
I think it’s the Aids Marathon Training group that has the tagline of “You Train, You Triumph” Well, I think that would probably be true when training for any endurance sport.
The weekend after the Fargo Marathon was Memorial Day weekend. I had decided to simulate the Madison To Chicago Relay that weekend because, well it has become part of my pre-summer routine: You run many miles, at all hours of the day, it makes you a little sick but you feel so great for finishing it. While simulating, I had friends running with me. Leg 1: Andrea; Leg 2: Sheila; Leg 3: Alison; Leg 4 (Midnight Run): Ultra Jen; Leg 5: Ultra Jen, Tony and introductions to Lou.
Here it is, this introduction, might be what kicked my butt into gear for the bike portion of the triathlon. Prior to Memorial Day weekend, I was getting out and riding, maybe once a week. I otherwise kept resorting to the indoor spin bikes at the gym, mainly because I hate the lakeshore path. When meeting Lou, he said “The path is great at 5:00am, Tara just try it out” And that’s when my Tuesday and Thursday mornings started with the alarm going off at 4:30am. I started logging my weekday bikes between 30 to 40 miles on a regular basis, making that distance feel more natural.
A few weeks into this regime, Alison started joining, and then Alison started getting me out on the longer weekend rides. We went out to Barrington one weekend for a 60ish mile ride and I kind of fell in love with riding in Barrington. I also got a few longer rides in Wisconsin by my parent’s house. I had a loop on Hwy Y that would take me from New Berlin to Waukesha. There are lots of cars on Y at 50mph, but there is almost always a nice size shoulder, and part of the road is new, and it is SUPER hilly.
A few weeks into the T/R bike am bike rides, Lou somehow convinced me that waking up super early was so much fun, that I should get up Wednesday mornings to swim. Lou’s argument was the water is crystal clear, and you get to watch the sunrise as you swim. My thought process was: If you do it in the morning, you get it over with.
There is something to be said about training with friends, vs. alone. It’s a lot more enjoyable to train with friends, so enjoyable that I think Alison and I are going to keep the training going even though I just have the Chicago Tri left for 2010. Thank you to Alison and Lou, for being my Training Buddies!
(Alison: You know I know how to make them stop and stare as I zone out, the club can’t even handle me right now. Watching you watching me I go all out. AND REPEAT).
As usual, I still have marathon training going on in the background of whatever triathlon training I am doing. A notable PR: Lou, Jill and I went to track workouts with Lou’s group one Wednesday. Lou’s group is FAST, so fast that the first mile, I just wanted to keep up with them, so I pushed myself to and I ran a mile in under 6 minutes. That did kill me for the rest of the speeds, and I dropped back to the half mile speed group, but it was a TRIumphant P.R.
Fast forward training to the taper. Alison had to remind me to “Respect the Taper” I also had Maria and Lou both reminding me to take it easy. I don’t do that well, but I knew I should listen to the Ironman friends and for the most part I did.
The week before our race Alison and I were finishing a 26 mile ride out in Barrington and transitioning to a run, I looked at my phone and had a missed call and text from Rachel A. Rachel’s father has been struggling with Pancreatic Cancer for the past year. That morning, he passed away. I never knew Arcadio Alarcon Jr, but his daughter has become a great friend to me. I’ve talked about Rachel in many write-ups before, the influence she has had on my life is only positive. She fills my world with Love and a calmer perspective at life. Arcadio was Rachel’s father, and because of that, I know he was a great man. Alison saw how sad this news made me, and she knew I wanted to do something for Rachel and her family, so we decided I would complete the Racine Half Ironman in Honor of Arcadio and his family.
Rachel chose the American Cancer Society as the Charity for me to honor her father through. ACS has always been my charity of choice mainly because of my close ties: they are my Triathlon Community but Rachel had her own deep meaning to choose it and it makes me smile, how fitting ACS really is to gain the donation in Honor of Arcadio, a DetermiNed Man! I am not officially on Team DetermiNation this year (I’m just a Mentor to 30+ Runners), but if you have any interest in donating to a worthwhile charity you can click on the link below to Alison’s page.
Alejandro got tuned up the week before the race, I picked him up Saturday morning and he was so shiny and clean! He was ready. I made my way up to Wisconsin and stopped by my parent’s house to get my Dad. My Dad loves watching my triathlons. He is probably my best cheerleader and I’m so grateful to have such a wonderful dad, that even at age 28, he wants to be involved in my life. We made a game plan for where and when he should be at certain points of the race. My parents live about 40 minutes from the race start, but the western edge of the bike is about 20 minutes away, so this was great that my mom didn’t have to be out there right away, but it was convenient for her to meet up with my dad and then only had half a day of being on her feet.
Once we were finished at the Expo, we met up with my Mom and Veronica and her training friend, Daryl, for dinner. We had a great time filling in my parents with the wonders of Triathlon training. Veronica, Daryle and I were all first time half ironman participants, so we shared our concerns and worries and fed off each other’s excitement for what was to come.
My biggest concern of the evening was the weather. The weather forecast showed thunderstorms all Sunday. The chance was only 30%, but that Doppler looked pretty grim. I was trying not to be worried about it, and went to bed.
Sunday morning came and making it to the race was free of stress. My dad took me and I set up my transition area. I was nervous, but actually more excited to get started, than nervous for what could go wrong. I wish I would have taken a picture of the moment, I was with my four original Ironman inspirations: Heath, Kristin, Alison and Michelle, and with my Ironman Goal to accomplish together friend, Veronica. Right on schedule of the goal I set out for 2 years ago.
When the swim started, I had a moment of panic with all the kicking and hitting, but I backed off to have a little more of my own space, and attempted to get in a rhythm. When I wasn’t being kicked or hit, I was content, but there was one blow to the face where I bit my lip and wondered if I had a bloody nose. Of course the thought in my mind was, that would make me look tough, getting out of the water with a bloody nose- ha!. There was another kick that pushed in my left goggle right to my eye. I just decided to swim like that unless it became so irritable I would have to stop and fix. I saw lots of people get pulled out, which I’m guessing it was because of the cold 63 degree temperature? I didn’t find it too bad, but then again, the Wednesday morning Jill and I went swimming, I’m sure the temps were in the mid 50s and that made me a little tougher on the cold temps. I felt like I was going extremely slow, so I was pretty content with a 43 minute finish (that includes a nice portion of running in the sand).
My dad was there watching me run the transition. I talked with some people in the transition, and off I went for the bike. The start of the bike was on an uphill. Veronica and I talked about walking our bikes to the top before we mount, but at that moment I decided to mount at the bottom, but couldn’t get my 2nd foot latched while going up hill, and so as I saw my dad again, he just said, many are running it up the hill do that….and so I got off and ran it to the top and got on again. Of course, I got some cheers for Alejandro. Everybody loves my bike J
The first and last 7 miles of the bike were on the annoying streets of Racine that were blotchy and bumpy. But the other 42 miles were pretty great! I had so much fun on the bike. I was cruising along at 20mph, which I didn’t expect but it just felt so good that I let it happen. I loved the rolling part of the hills, because with every down, I would push and then coast on the up. We had some other hills that took some work. I wasn’t afraid to use the easy gears, because I wanted to keep my legs fresh.
My dad made it to the 20 mile mark JUST as I was passing, I mean he crossed the street to get in the place I knew to look for him at, as I was passing.
Around mile 25, I first spotted my leap frog friend, Simon. We managed to pass and repass each other. At first, I do have to say, I was worried this guy was getting annoyed with me, and I wondered if he was an egotistical guy that didn’t like it when girl passed him. But finally at one point he said hello, and we made a game out of it that really made the bike that much more enjoyable. We were each other’s carrots.
Around mile 30, I started to pay for the lack of nutrition I was taking in on the race. D. Lee’s biggest lecture to me was about nutrition. He told me to get the e-gels as they were better than gus and everything else, and to make sure I eat often. Eating while biking means you have to coordinate and a lot of times that means you have to slow down, and I just didn’t want to slow down. But, mile 30 I noticed my vision was a little spotty. I experienced this with the Waukegan Triathlon last year, and knew it was because my electrolytes were down. I could hear the lecture from D. Lee if I had to stop the race because I passed out and I immediately took three electrolyte pills and had an e-gel. This did the trick!
Simon passed me around mile 37 and said “tag, you’re it” Well, he took off so fast, I just let him fly (okay by that I mean, I picked up my pace, but accepted the fact I wasn’t catching up with him). My dad managed to meet with my mom and make it at mile 40 to cheer me. It was great to know every hour, I had spectators!
I turned the corner on H, and knew, it was home free from there. I had a perma grin because I felt so great and was having such a good time, I couldn’t not smile. As I passed people I got many comments about how smiley I was. Around mile 47, I finally caught up to Simon. I told him I thought I lost him forever and it was great to see him. He said he hoped he was making me work for it, which he was. He passed me in the early 50s and that was the last I saw of him.
The last 7 miles were beyond annoyingly bumpy. I didn’t like staying in the aerobar position because of the bumps. They hurt my bottom as well as my arms. But, the bike was over. When I dismounted, I was filled with energy. I felt GREAT!
I went into transition, and changed shoes and everything else for the next event: A Half Marathon! I saw Emily and Jen as I started my run, but I didn’t see my parents. I figured, I was too fast for them, but hope they realized they missed me so they weren’t waiting around or getting worried.
The miles felt long but I was all smiles. Somewhere after the first mile, I saw Heath, he was heading south, finishing his first loop ready to start his second. I thought, lucky man! Around mile 3 I was finally getting into a rhythm and at this time, we heard some thunder and then were misted. I found it odd there was thunder because it looked pretty clear to me, and I didn’t know what cloud was misting us because I really didn’t see any. I made the turn around, and started heading back south. Between miles 4 and 5 I noticed the ground was soaked and that’s when I started to slow down just a bit, as the rain was evaporating and it was so hot. I learned the ground was wet because for 5 minutes, the skies opened up and down poured, I just happened to be too far north to be blessed with a shower mid run, instead I got the steamy roads.
My mom managed to be cheering on the run right near the turn around. You could see the finish as you turned around. The clock read 5hours and 15 minutes. My wave started 35 minutes into the race so that meant I was at 4 hours and 40 minutes. At that point I knew, I could finish the race in under 6 hours I just had to finish the 2nd loop.
I was walking through the water stops because I was grabbing about 3 cups at each one (it was near 90 degrees at the point of me starting the run, so it was all about staying hydrated). Luckily the water stops were plentiful and they were also offering coke. I would take 2 waters and 1 coke or 2 waters and 1 powerade at every stop on the way back. I also grabbed ice, if anything to hold in my hand and focus on that pretending my whole body was that refreshed.
I saw Alison and Kristin both twice as they were on their 1st loop. Seeing them gave me little burst of energy. For awhile, I did resort to counting my steps. And I imagined jumping back into the lake and cooling down.
I was in the last mile, focused on the finish. I saw Ed cheering which I wanted that to give me extra energy, but at that point I had a cramp brewing that I was focused on not letting take over me. I listened to Anne’s advice and just said “not now legs, just get me to the finish, you can cramp up later” I don’ know if that worked, but I carried myself to the finish all smiles crossing the finish line. My Mom, Dad and Uncle were at the finish line waiting for me. Hugs were in order, as I looked at the clock my dad said “You finished in 5 hours and 45 minutes!” I was so happy, the tears were flowing and the feeling remains with me as I write this.
I didn’t doubt I would finish (okay well, I did worry I would get a flat and somehow not be able to change it and then get DQed). I knew I could swim 1.2 miles in 40 to 45 minutes, I figured I could pull off a 2 hour half marathon after the swim and the bike, but I never imagined I could ride 56 miles in just under 20mph. I was thinking more along 3 hours and 20 minutes, closer to 17mph. I also figured I would definitely slow down and thought I was going to finish between 6 ½ hours and 7 hours. To finish the Half Ironman and be that much closer to the Ironman Dream is such a big win in its own. But to finish in 5hours in 45 minutes, that’s just a Triumphant Race!
Racine Half Ironman
5:45:26
Swim 43:58 (1.2 miles)
T1: 5:07
Bike 2:51:01 (56 miles)
T2: 2:52
Run 2:02:28 (13.1 miles)
I think it’s the Aids Marathon Training group that has the tagline of “You Train, You Triumph” Well, I think that would probably be true when training for any endurance sport.
The weekend after the Fargo Marathon was Memorial Day weekend. I had decided to simulate the Madison To Chicago Relay that weekend because, well it has become part of my pre-summer routine: You run many miles, at all hours of the day, it makes you a little sick but you feel so great for finishing it. While simulating, I had friends running with me. Leg 1: Andrea; Leg 2: Sheila; Leg 3: Alison; Leg 4 (Midnight Run): Ultra Jen; Leg 5: Ultra Jen, Tony and introductions to Lou.
Here it is, this introduction, might be what kicked my butt into gear for the bike portion of the triathlon. Prior to Memorial Day weekend, I was getting out and riding, maybe once a week. I otherwise kept resorting to the indoor spin bikes at the gym, mainly because I hate the lakeshore path. When meeting Lou, he said “The path is great at 5:00am, Tara just try it out” And that’s when my Tuesday and Thursday mornings started with the alarm going off at 4:30am. I started logging my weekday bikes between 30 to 40 miles on a regular basis, making that distance feel more natural.
A few weeks into this regime, Alison started joining, and then Alison started getting me out on the longer weekend rides. We went out to Barrington one weekend for a 60ish mile ride and I kind of fell in love with riding in Barrington. I also got a few longer rides in Wisconsin by my parent’s house. I had a loop on Hwy Y that would take me from New Berlin to Waukesha. There are lots of cars on Y at 50mph, but there is almost always a nice size shoulder, and part of the road is new, and it is SUPER hilly.
A few weeks into the T/R bike am bike rides, Lou somehow convinced me that waking up super early was so much fun, that I should get up Wednesday mornings to swim. Lou’s argument was the water is crystal clear, and you get to watch the sunrise as you swim. My thought process was: If you do it in the morning, you get it over with.
There is something to be said about training with friends, vs. alone. It’s a lot more enjoyable to train with friends, so enjoyable that I think Alison and I are going to keep the training going even though I just have the Chicago Tri left for 2010. Thank you to Alison and Lou, for being my Training Buddies!
(Alison: You know I know how to make them stop and stare as I zone out, the club can’t even handle me right now. Watching you watching me I go all out. AND REPEAT).
As usual, I still have marathon training going on in the background of whatever triathlon training I am doing. A notable PR: Lou, Jill and I went to track workouts with Lou’s group one Wednesday. Lou’s group is FAST, so fast that the first mile, I just wanted to keep up with them, so I pushed myself to and I ran a mile in under 6 minutes. That did kill me for the rest of the speeds, and I dropped back to the half mile speed group, but it was a TRIumphant P.R.
Fast forward training to the taper. Alison had to remind me to “Respect the Taper” I also had Maria and Lou both reminding me to take it easy. I don’t do that well, but I knew I should listen to the Ironman friends and for the most part I did.
The week before our race Alison and I were finishing a 26 mile ride out in Barrington and transitioning to a run, I looked at my phone and had a missed call and text from Rachel A. Rachel’s father has been struggling with Pancreatic Cancer for the past year. That morning, he passed away. I never knew Arcadio Alarcon Jr, but his daughter has become a great friend to me. I’ve talked about Rachel in many write-ups before, the influence she has had on my life is only positive. She fills my world with Love and a calmer perspective at life. Arcadio was Rachel’s father, and because of that, I know he was a great man. Alison saw how sad this news made me, and she knew I wanted to do something for Rachel and her family, so we decided I would complete the Racine Half Ironman in Honor of Arcadio and his family.
Rachel chose the American Cancer Society as the Charity for me to honor her father through. ACS has always been my charity of choice mainly because of my close ties: they are my Triathlon Community but Rachel had her own deep meaning to choose it and it makes me smile, how fitting ACS really is to gain the donation in Honor of Arcadio, a DetermiNed Man! I am not officially on Team DetermiNation this year (I’m just a Mentor to 30+ Runners), but if you have any interest in donating to a worthwhile charity you can click on the link below to Alison’s page.
Alejandro got tuned up the week before the race, I picked him up Saturday morning and he was so shiny and clean! He was ready. I made my way up to Wisconsin and stopped by my parent’s house to get my Dad. My Dad loves watching my triathlons. He is probably my best cheerleader and I’m so grateful to have such a wonderful dad, that even at age 28, he wants to be involved in my life. We made a game plan for where and when he should be at certain points of the race. My parents live about 40 minutes from the race start, but the western edge of the bike is about 20 minutes away, so this was great that my mom didn’t have to be out there right away, but it was convenient for her to meet up with my dad and then only had half a day of being on her feet.
Once we were finished at the Expo, we met up with my Mom and Veronica and her training friend, Daryl, for dinner. We had a great time filling in my parents with the wonders of Triathlon training. Veronica, Daryle and I were all first time half ironman participants, so we shared our concerns and worries and fed off each other’s excitement for what was to come.
My biggest concern of the evening was the weather. The weather forecast showed thunderstorms all Sunday. The chance was only 30%, but that Doppler looked pretty grim. I was trying not to be worried about it, and went to bed.
Sunday morning came and making it to the race was free of stress. My dad took me and I set up my transition area. I was nervous, but actually more excited to get started, than nervous for what could go wrong. I wish I would have taken a picture of the moment, I was with my four original Ironman inspirations: Heath, Kristin, Alison and Michelle, and with my Ironman Goal to accomplish together friend, Veronica. Right on schedule of the goal I set out for 2 years ago.
When the swim started, I had a moment of panic with all the kicking and hitting, but I backed off to have a little more of my own space, and attempted to get in a rhythm. When I wasn’t being kicked or hit, I was content, but there was one blow to the face where I bit my lip and wondered if I had a bloody nose. Of course the thought in my mind was, that would make me look tough, getting out of the water with a bloody nose- ha!. There was another kick that pushed in my left goggle right to my eye. I just decided to swim like that unless it became so irritable I would have to stop and fix. I saw lots of people get pulled out, which I’m guessing it was because of the cold 63 degree temperature? I didn’t find it too bad, but then again, the Wednesday morning Jill and I went swimming, I’m sure the temps were in the mid 50s and that made me a little tougher on the cold temps. I felt like I was going extremely slow, so I was pretty content with a 43 minute finish (that includes a nice portion of running in the sand).
My dad was there watching me run the transition. I talked with some people in the transition, and off I went for the bike. The start of the bike was on an uphill. Veronica and I talked about walking our bikes to the top before we mount, but at that moment I decided to mount at the bottom, but couldn’t get my 2nd foot latched while going up hill, and so as I saw my dad again, he just said, many are running it up the hill do that….and so I got off and ran it to the top and got on again. Of course, I got some cheers for Alejandro. Everybody loves my bike J
The first and last 7 miles of the bike were on the annoying streets of Racine that were blotchy and bumpy. But the other 42 miles were pretty great! I had so much fun on the bike. I was cruising along at 20mph, which I didn’t expect but it just felt so good that I let it happen. I loved the rolling part of the hills, because with every down, I would push and then coast on the up. We had some other hills that took some work. I wasn’t afraid to use the easy gears, because I wanted to keep my legs fresh.
My dad made it to the 20 mile mark JUST as I was passing, I mean he crossed the street to get in the place I knew to look for him at, as I was passing.
Around mile 25, I first spotted my leap frog friend, Simon. We managed to pass and repass each other. At first, I do have to say, I was worried this guy was getting annoyed with me, and I wondered if he was an egotistical guy that didn’t like it when girl passed him. But finally at one point he said hello, and we made a game out of it that really made the bike that much more enjoyable. We were each other’s carrots.
Around mile 30, I started to pay for the lack of nutrition I was taking in on the race. D. Lee’s biggest lecture to me was about nutrition. He told me to get the e-gels as they were better than gus and everything else, and to make sure I eat often. Eating while biking means you have to coordinate and a lot of times that means you have to slow down, and I just didn’t want to slow down. But, mile 30 I noticed my vision was a little spotty. I experienced this with the Waukegan Triathlon last year, and knew it was because my electrolytes were down. I could hear the lecture from D. Lee if I had to stop the race because I passed out and I immediately took three electrolyte pills and had an e-gel. This did the trick!
Simon passed me around mile 37 and said “tag, you’re it” Well, he took off so fast, I just let him fly (okay by that I mean, I picked up my pace, but accepted the fact I wasn’t catching up with him). My dad managed to meet with my mom and make it at mile 40 to cheer me. It was great to know every hour, I had spectators!
I turned the corner on H, and knew, it was home free from there. I had a perma grin because I felt so great and was having such a good time, I couldn’t not smile. As I passed people I got many comments about how smiley I was. Around mile 47, I finally caught up to Simon. I told him I thought I lost him forever and it was great to see him. He said he hoped he was making me work for it, which he was. He passed me in the early 50s and that was the last I saw of him.
The last 7 miles were beyond annoyingly bumpy. I didn’t like staying in the aerobar position because of the bumps. They hurt my bottom as well as my arms. But, the bike was over. When I dismounted, I was filled with energy. I felt GREAT!
I went into transition, and changed shoes and everything else for the next event: A Half Marathon! I saw Emily and Jen as I started my run, but I didn’t see my parents. I figured, I was too fast for them, but hope they realized they missed me so they weren’t waiting around or getting worried.
The miles felt long but I was all smiles. Somewhere after the first mile, I saw Heath, he was heading south, finishing his first loop ready to start his second. I thought, lucky man! Around mile 3 I was finally getting into a rhythm and at this time, we heard some thunder and then were misted. I found it odd there was thunder because it looked pretty clear to me, and I didn’t know what cloud was misting us because I really didn’t see any. I made the turn around, and started heading back south. Between miles 4 and 5 I noticed the ground was soaked and that’s when I started to slow down just a bit, as the rain was evaporating and it was so hot. I learned the ground was wet because for 5 minutes, the skies opened up and down poured, I just happened to be too far north to be blessed with a shower mid run, instead I got the steamy roads.
My mom managed to be cheering on the run right near the turn around. You could see the finish as you turned around. The clock read 5hours and 15 minutes. My wave started 35 minutes into the race so that meant I was at 4 hours and 40 minutes. At that point I knew, I could finish the race in under 6 hours I just had to finish the 2nd loop.
I was walking through the water stops because I was grabbing about 3 cups at each one (it was near 90 degrees at the point of me starting the run, so it was all about staying hydrated). Luckily the water stops were plentiful and they were also offering coke. I would take 2 waters and 1 coke or 2 waters and 1 powerade at every stop on the way back. I also grabbed ice, if anything to hold in my hand and focus on that pretending my whole body was that refreshed.
I saw Alison and Kristin both twice as they were on their 1st loop. Seeing them gave me little burst of energy. For awhile, I did resort to counting my steps. And I imagined jumping back into the lake and cooling down.
I was in the last mile, focused on the finish. I saw Ed cheering which I wanted that to give me extra energy, but at that point I had a cramp brewing that I was focused on not letting take over me. I listened to Anne’s advice and just said “not now legs, just get me to the finish, you can cramp up later” I don’ know if that worked, but I carried myself to the finish all smiles crossing the finish line. My Mom, Dad and Uncle were at the finish line waiting for me. Hugs were in order, as I looked at the clock my dad said “You finished in 5 hours and 45 minutes!” I was so happy, the tears were flowing and the feeling remains with me as I write this.
I didn’t doubt I would finish (okay well, I did worry I would get a flat and somehow not be able to change it and then get DQed). I knew I could swim 1.2 miles in 40 to 45 minutes, I figured I could pull off a 2 hour half marathon after the swim and the bike, but I never imagined I could ride 56 miles in just under 20mph. I was thinking more along 3 hours and 20 minutes, closer to 17mph. I also figured I would definitely slow down and thought I was going to finish between 6 ½ hours and 7 hours. To finish the Half Ironman and be that much closer to the Ironman Dream is such a big win in its own. But to finish in 5hours in 45 minutes, that’s just a Triumphant Race!
You're amazing! (And slightly nuts! It's why I love you!)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your blog Tara...SO SO SO proud of you!! (even though you're slightly crazy ;))
ReplyDelete