IRON GIRL 2008 Pics *NEW PICS ADDED

What a great experience!

Very glad to have shared this with my mom and hubby... 360th out of 1,620 women... got beat up pretty good in swim but took no prisoners in bike and run.... Race Results

Iron Girl Race Report 2008

OK.. here is a really LONG detailed race report… Iron Girl 2008

What a great weekend.. Joe, Mom, and I drove to Columbia Maryland so I could participate in the Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon.. which is a .62 mile swim, 17.5 mile bike, and a 3.4 mile run… it’s an all women’s event and it was AWESOME!

I drove while Joe and Mom played with their new cell phones sending text messages to G-d knows who…..AND THEN since they were SOO exhausted they took naps…….

We arrived in Columbia around noonish and had no problem finding packet pick up and getting all my goodies… they gave us lots of stuff.. a stuffed duck, a flower lei, a shirt, and water bottle …and wow there were A LOT of women.. but the atmosphere was good..

Actually there was only once incident and that was some big a-s guy standing in front of me where you are suppose to look up your race numbers.. he was looking up the number for his wife… like CANT she do that for herself!@ !!!! And then he would NOT MOVE out of the way so I had to nudge him aside.. and say excuse me.. so instead of him saying sorry he just glares at me.. [F_ you too.. a-s hole… this is a F- women's event so get the F- outta the way.. ]…. I thought for a brief moment that I may have to put the beat down on him…….. ..anyhow.. back to peace and harmony… and we head to Centennial Park to get bike inspected and drop it off..

The one thing I love about women's events is that the atmosphere is fairly positive.. perhaps it’s the lack of testosterone ….but usually there is a lot of niceness going around.. however I did encounter a few women who just give women a bad rap… either they didn’t read the rules or didn’t care to follow the rules and had to argue with the officials in transition….

In the rules that were sent to us by email... and online at the website, AND were given to us in our packet, AND were told to us when we were given our arm band were ……. NO ONE was allowed in the transition area except those participating in the event..

Fairly basic.. right.????. only people in the race were allowed in transition area….

SOOO.. you get these women who are arguing with the officials in the transition area because they want to bring their HORDS of children in with then .. when the official say no .. they say.. well what am I suppose to do with them????

(YOU GOT TO BE F_ KIDDING ME.. what do you do with them when you are racing!!!!! PUT THEM ON YOUR handlebars???...)..

I can see why the rules state no one in transition area but the participants.. can you imagine 2,200 participants and their entire families in transition area!!????..... HOLY SMOKES.. and then kids running around .. and accidently knocking over someone’s bike or gosh getting hurt on someone’s bike… NO WAY>>> FOLLOW THE RULES>>> JEEZ!

The day blew by rather fast and by the evening we were all tucked in watching the Olympics … and I had to remind my “support crew” …..LIGHTS OUT @ 11!....

The next morning we all got up around 4:30am.. even though I swear I was awake every half hour since 2am… and I put the two sleepy heads in the truck and get to the race by 5:20am .. as I am lugging all my stuff to the transition area I realize it’s really dark.. oh yeah.. I definitely needed a flashlight to see what the reading on the bike pump is.. but nope forgot to pack it.. gosh not like me to come unprepared… thankfully the girl next to me had one… I had myself set up and out of there in 15 minutes…

So now Joe, Mom, and I sit around and wait and watch things.. we got to see the pro’s swim come in.. GOSH I wish I could swim like that… then it was time for me to go and get in line for my swim…

The water was warm 84 degrees.. nice…. I thought it best to get right in and make sure I was used to water as I wanted NO ISSUES… however by getting in first I had to tread water for 8 minutes prior to my wave start since it was too deep to touch… and there was some sort of seaweed or something wrapping itself around my legs.. seaweed doesn’t really bother me but when someone mentioned that this lake was cleaner today than usual.. I thought gee what a swamp…

When we started I tried NOT to position myself upfront but someone I got caught up in middle left and got pummeled... thankfully I am a big girl and can hold my place but I found it next to impossible to get any kinda rhythm going… and we were swimming right into the sun for the first bit and I was blinded.. I even had on tinted goggles.. but found it impossible to see…

So this pummeling continued until the first buoy… there were just too many girls in a small space… I HAD to get my breathing slowed as my heart was racing.. and I was getting outta breathe and this was not good.. finally I broke free and there was only a handful of girls around.. then someone knocked my goggles down, and they started to fill with water and that is NEVER a good thing when you have contacts…..

But was kinda funny as I started to see the water come up like a sinking ship.. I was like.. UH OH… .. I had to STOP, and empty them and put them back on… When I got back to swimming I had to swim around people doing breast stroke and dodge a girl who was swimming the so wrong way..

I started to relax and make up some time UNTIL …. I got clubbed in the head ….by a girl in the wave behind me… she dang near knocked me out.. I honestly thought that one of the kayak people smacked me with their oar…if I wasn’t in the middle of the lake I would have thought it was funny..... SH_T that hurt… she did say sorry as she continued on .. but jeez… so that got me thinking… GOSH that would be soo easy for someone to lose consciousness and slip under the water…. and this is NOT the kind of thoughts I should be thinking about WHILE in the water… !!!

Anyhow back to swimming.. finally done… look at time.. 28.38… oh much sadness.. I am as slow as a sea turtle!!!! According to my specs I came out of water in 1,273rd place out of 1,622… eekes..

The run up to the bikes was a long one.. and thankfully I found my bike without any issues… I get shoes, helmet, sun glasses on and …. D-mn… bike gloves just wont go on.. I think I blew 30 seconds getting them on.. and do I really need them???? …. UGH… they are pretty..hmmm… yes I need them… finally out of transition I go…

We have to push our bikes up a small grass hill before we could mount them and there was a lady who was walking her bike up this hill … and I wanted to run and she is blocking my way.. and BOY this IS A RACE NOW honey…. !! GET YOU’RE A=S MOVING… Finally on my way on the bike…

As soon as I got clipped in on bike I just pounded away…. I wanted to make up the time that I lost on the swim and I felt confident from my training I could pull big numbers for the 17.5 mile course…. There were some hills on this course and the first one I came down on I was hitting 35 mph.. which is never a good thing because I looked over and we had to GO BACK UP this hill on return bike leg… I started to question myself thinking wow you are going die on way back but I kept pushing it and passing hordes of people. …I can only assume that since I came out of water near last place that this is why I was passing so many people..... I felt my bike went exceptionally well.. my specs out of bike stated that I had moved up to 482nd place out of 1,622..

What I thought was stupid was…when we ended the bike they made you get off your bikes and run a good way .. I am thinking 25-50 yards until you hit the timing mats.. so the time you are running gets factored into the bike mph.. that’s stupid

Trans 2.. … got in.. couldn’t find my spot to rack bike… I am lost… WTF!!! Don’t panic.. count.. one.. two.. three.. four.. five.. aha..there I am .. GRRR… lost 20 seconds acting stupid.. racked bike… off goes helmet, gloves, bike shoes.. on goes sneaks… thank u LACE LOCKS… !!! … on in like 5 seconds.. I run out of transition and wonder if I am going right way…. as I only see girls walking..... ???

I am now plugging along on run… and I come up on more walking girls… I think at this point you have to make sure to tell yourself that just because everyone is walking does NOT mean you should.. so I tell myself .. no need to walk why do you need to.. ??? you don’t.. so I keep running…..

I hit two miles at 17 something.. ok… that like a 8.45 pace.. acceptable considering… then we hit this giant hill that is just really mean.. I can see WHY now they are walking…..but I keep running.. the last mile I should have pushed it.. it was fairly flat.. but I think I just mentally shut down.. just didn’t push it.. and that I have to work on… you cant let what is going on around you affect you (with everyone walking)… I did sprint last 100 yards… just wanted to be done… here is finishing race specs

Finish time 2.03.55
360/1632 overall
85/340 age

Overall this was a fantastic race that I definitely recommend to all women of every age, size, shape… very nice!

Certified Personal Trainer

YIPEEE… I am a Certified Personal Trainer!

I passed the test.. and to think what I can do for my family and friends now… work out schedules, plans… and .... hey wait where did everyone go????? …. I still have more training to go... but at least I am done the first step.. !

Also....I was one of 20 people selected to be part of my work's Turn Key College Cohort Class… My work has an agreement with DCCC (Delaware Community College) in which they will pay upfront all the college fees for a select group of employees to go back to school at night (one or two days a week) for the next three years to obtain an Associate's Degree in Business....

I took the tests and was offered one of the spots…..I AM SOO EXCITED!!! So for the next three years I will be going back to school on Tuesday (and or Thursday nights).. they even allowed me to transfer some of my previous college credits.. what a great opportunity… !

You are probably wondering how this will impact my training and goals.. well I decided to make sure only to do HALF ironmans or less these next few years.. UNLESS I just so happen to qualify for Hawaii..then I will have to work something out!

Very exciting stuff.. so in three years I will be a Certified Personal Trainer with an Associate's Degree in Business and hopefully on my way to Hawaii.. by boat of course.. oh and probably end up walking dogs for a living… hee hee.. too cool..

Time Management

Time management…. This is when triathlon skills come in handy for every day life!

Yesterday... daughter is scheduled for an outpatient procedure in am.. mom is coming with us.. dog decides to be deathly ill.. have to figure out how to pick up mom... take daughter to hospital..take dog to vet...get back to hospital... then get to work.... this is how it’s done...

Get up early...pack everyone in truck (dog and daughter).. drive sanely but firmly across town to pick up mom....ask mom if she could wait outside by street so we could just... drive by... and she can ... jump in.. . drive S-A-N-E-L-Y.. but firmly to the hospital anex building... drop off mom and daughter.. run inside make sure all papers are filled out and turned in.. jump back in car .. reverse gears, head back across town to vet... [of course dog now plays NOT sick]..rush inside... vet checks out dog... gets shot, pill, $91 dollars later back in car heading back to hospital... take dog out for a walk to get business done.. pick up business and have to run it to the back of the building to toss it out..put dog back in car... .car windows down in shade.. run inside building to see if daughter in.. yes..

Mom says about an hour or so... K... back outside to make sure dog really is ok... walk her around. give treat .. back in car.. back inside... wait wait wait.. mom turn.. to truck visit with dog.. wait wait wait... mom back in... my turn go back out to visit with dog.. dog has accident on floor of truck.. ugh... take her out once again.

Back inside.. daughter done, everything good.. ready to leave.. toss mom, daughter in truck .. dog patiently waiting looks almost amused... drive to mom and dad's house... drop off mom, daughter and DOG... have to pull rug from truck and clean.. clean clean clean... notice hungry..lunch time.. jump back in truck, whip through fast food drive through... balled up in pit of stomach now.. head to work.. whew.. bingo... 5-1/2 hours.. not too bad.. I need a nap...

Indian River Vacation 2008

Countdown to IRON GIRL 2008

11 days to go.....

On August 24, 2008, I will be racing in the AFLAC IRON GIRL COLUMBIA TRIATHLON in Centennial Park - Columbia, Maryland (0.62mi Swim - 17.5mi Bike - 3.4mi Run). It is an all women's triathlon.… Iron Girl Website

I will be competing against 445+ women in JUST my age group of 40-44..(I believe there are 2,000+ women overall registered)…. Mom and Joe will be accompanying me and I cant wait!! .. I am SOO EXCITED.. this will be the first time EVER that mom will see me compete in a triathlon.. in fact I think it will be the first time ever she has even seen a triathlon. Too cool… !!!

I get to wear a special race bib due to my family and friends helped me collect $535.00 for the Ulman Cancer Fund, which is the first and largest organization in the country solely supporting young adults living with cancer. Ulman Fund Website

I will keep you posted on how I do!!

77 Mile Bike - To Assateague & Back

Vacation is a time for rest and relaxation ….

My carefully planned out adventure would take us from our campground to Assateague National Seashore. According to my calculations it should be around 77-80 miles roundtrip and should take no more than say 4-5 hours…

You can justify anything if you really want to.. I justify my “sleeping in” until 6:30am by stating that I will be more “fresh” when we go… Sometimes getting up early is really difficult …even though you know it’s soo much nicer to bike before the sun really gets cooking..alarm goes off.... snooze…

By the time we got the bikes set up, tires pumped, bottles filled, and gear on it was 9:20am…the temperature would get up to 92 degrees this day and the winds would be a steady 10 mph with some gusts of 15+… I love flat terrain.. something really nice about not having to shift into the granny gear and have my thighs seize up…although riding into headwinds leave a lot to be desired..

How is that no matter what direction we rode, the wind was constantly in our face??? Joe made mention that he wasn’t sure if he hated hills or the wind more… I am still thinking about it…. around mile 30 we passed a 7-11 and decided to stop and get slurpees.. Joe asked if this was on the nutrition plan… I can justify anything… …we got to Assateague feeling a bit wind whipped but none the less feeling good. …. Ok... now let’s turn around and go back…

I make note of this feel good statement because things did turn a little ugly around mile 65…. Something of the fact of why I was forcing him to do this…[ like I had a gun to his head or something] ..I am sure the fact that we were now pushing 4+ hours out in heat… and the wind still had not given us a break didn’t help. You know when someone’s mood changes when the talk stops… no more idle chatter....

Joe says I am infectious… is that what you call it when you drag your husband out…willingly I may note… to bike for 4+ hours in the searing heat on vacation? Infectious?

It ended well … 77 miles and some change… no heat stroke… Joe hungry..proceeded to eat us out of house and home…… life is very good.

Joe’s 18 miler

Joe and I did HIS first ever 18 mile run on Sunday. And well….he did very well …considering ….he now has a claw as a hand…

The carefully laid out running route took us from the center of Rehoboth towards Gordon’s Pond which is part of Cape Henlopen.. There is a wonderful path that takes you around Gordon’s Pond and is quite scenic… ..we were delighted with ourselves to find such a great path… shaded, dirt and gravel.. .Joe made the comment that, “Wouldn’t it be nice to get most of our long run done on this?”.... Euphoria only lasts so long..

“Joe what did that sign say?”…

…the DO NOT ACCESS… or DO NOT ENTER.. or DO NOT DO something sign we missed… we just sort of went around it.. the “path” was now overgrown weeds, sand and muck.. I justified that it was still a “path” because we passed a bench… never mind that the weeds had grown up around the bench…. but see still a path… I am getting that really uneasy feeling that perhaps this particular part of the path is closed ….

We were just humming along …… just us and nature…. and…“what’s he doing?” I see Joe waving his hands about… …. Frantically…then something illegible and a few expletives… the man is crazy..”What the h-ll is he doing?”….. I catch up to him and he mumbles something about flies…so we turn around to head back and Joe takes off…he is in a full tilt sprint….. hands waving over his head, across his back… around in circles.. I can somewhat see that he is being chased by groups of wild…. very energetic green flies…amazing enough most of the flies leave me alone except the one that decided to get caught up under my sunglasses…

I wasn’t sure if I should cry or laugh… cry that he left me to get “eaten” ….I don’t think he turned around once for a mile… even the “YO.. wait ups were unacknowledged”…. or should I laugh that he was under siege and boy was it funny…poor Joe.. we were only 5 miles into our run and still had 13 miles to go..the buggers finally gave up after a mile!! Geez….

As we were leaving the trail we noticed that Joe had gotten bit on his hand and his hand was double the size of what it should be.. it was HUGE , not sure where the fingers were as it looked FAKE.. his entire hand was now a CLAW.. I almost tripped as we were running because it really was that unbelievable… .. I suggested that perhaps we should get some Benadryl?

Some people are tough, some people are pig headed.. some people are persistent and some people have an ironwill.. and some people are just plain umm.... my Joe is all… he and I ran the remaining 13 and got some ice cream….. after a few days the swelling has gone down.. he doesn’t appear to have any residual effects except perhaps he does glow a bit… .I think he will do just fine on November 2nd (at the C&D Marathon).

Venus on the Half Shell – Whose going to bring the ark?

Saturday, August 2nd was the Venus on the Half Shell 5K Race in Dewey Beach and I was one of 322 participants who braved the slightly adverse weather conditions in order to say heck I ran. When I woke on Saturday, I wrote in my journal, August 2nd, sunny, 75 degrees, Race in Dewey… the family and I were on our yearly camping at the beach vacation …and while they all peacefully slept I was heading to the race.

The last few days have been stifling… 90+ degrees with 90% humidity. The sheer thought of breathing was hard. So I was elated to see clouds in the distance… rain would be nice. Rain is good in my book. My parents always said to be careful of what you wish for….. in a matter of a half hour, the sunny turned cloudy and the sky opened up and it rained as though I should be collecting pairs of animals.. then to make sure you noticed… lightning and thunder were added in. ...oh not good.. rain is good….lightning and thunder… not good… this could either be a really long morning or a really short one…. I couldn’t even imagine how Wayne and Barb Kursh, the race directors would handle this one. ..you are either the good guys or bad guys. I think that no one really truly is happy so I really respect what they do.

While waiting for the determination on whether we would be canceling, delaying, or postponing the race, the storm let up enough for some of us to venture outside…. we had all been smushed up in the Venus on the Half Shell restaurant awaiting the storm out and well most runners get a bit antsy and I was one of them…. No sooner did a good portion of us get outside it started to pour again.. and we all like cattle moved back inside.. amazing HOW F- slow people move and these people are runners!

Back inside we awaited news from the directors …who much to my pleasure and surprise made mention that the race would go on and that it was up to each one of us to decide whether or not we wanted to run in the conditions… reminded us we signed waivers.. and good luck… Yes.. going to run in the torrential rain, thunder and lightning… ! We herd back outside and head up to the start. Wow Joe sure is missing out on this one…

Off we go… the rain now only a trickle… life was good. I found it very easy to get into a nice running rhythm , which by the way was almost immediately broken by someone who insisted on splashing and mashing into every puddle. G-d what an a-s……!! I normally ignore these types of people but I had to glance over to see what heathen was doing this.. not only was he going out of his way to hit every single puddle in the road.. he made sure to completely drench anyone around him… After a second look over I notice this was a little person.. a 9 years old.. awe how cute… ….. until he nailed me at the next puddle.. it’s not that I wasn’t wet.. because I was.. I just wasn’t THAT WET!!! And I do think I heard him giggle…

I tried to put this out of my mind .. but rounding the next corner there came upon a MAMOUTH puddle.. one so large it was unavoidable and while I know this little troll couldn’t wait to dretch all of us around him I couldn’t help but muster up a small smile when he entered the puddle and fell face first into it.. now a nice person would not have smiled.. and perhaps I am not nice but the first thing I thought of was it serves you right… you little heathen… ! [please note, he was ok…kids are fairly resilient].

The rest of the race went well I tried to keep up a 7.30 pace thinking gosh if Joe ever wants to qualify for Boston he has to keep up a 7.30 pace for his age group qualification for 26.2 miles.. jeez… good luck with that…

I finished quite strong.. although pulling my upper arm muscle during the sprint at the end.. don’t ask… who pulls an arm muscle in a leg race>?
Race Results