I woke up with that deep, scratchy itchy chest cough you get right before you start hacking up both of your lungs the next day. I am getting sick. I blame it all on my dirty student netbooks and the baby I held yesterday afternoon. You just can't trust babies, man.
Anyway, I considered ditching it altogether and resting up for a 10K I am running with a friend tomorrow (and running 8 miles after that when I get home-Ragnar!). But then I thought about all the time and effort my husband put in this week putting up with me and my biking exploits, so I knew if I didn't go he would kill me. Well, maybe not kill me. Maim me while making it look like an accident, maybe.
So the hubbs and I hauled our butts up to Beloit for the Beloit Wellness Biathlon (really a duathlon, but they refuse to change the name) held at Beloit Memorial Hospital. We got there super early because, for some reason, whenever I go to Wisconsin I think it is super far away because it is another state. Beloit is only a 30 minute drive from my house, however, so we got there about 2 hours early. The hubbs was not pleased, but it just gave me time to scope out the situation and get acclimated. And start freaking out about the transitions.
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| Me after setting up my transition area. Sexy sexy. |
I think I asked about everyone I could find about where to set up, what the runs were like, what the bike course was like....I should have just written "Newbie" on my forehead and just pointed to it whenever I encountered someone. I was nervous, nervous, nervous. I hit the port-a-john about 4 times, the last time being about 2 minutes before the first heat's start time. Thankfully I was in the 2nd heat, so I raced over to the start line right before my heat began.
And then, we were off on our first run:
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Run #1:
The two miles seemed to take longer than usual. But I wouldn't know because I FORGOT MY GARMIN AT HOME (Along with my purse! See how anxious I was about this?) so I was running by how I felt. But, considering what a slave I am to my Garmin, it was probably a good thing to run by feel today and monitor what my body was telling me instead of ignoring it in favor of what some machine on my wrist was telling me. I must have really been pushing it OR my lungs were sicker than I thought, because I had never ever been more happy to stop running as I came into.....
Transition #1:
All I have to say is that I am glad I brought my bright-ass orange beach towel; it made it very easy to spot my bike when coming into the transition area. I was actually happy to take a running break, and I was very much looking forward to getting on the bike. This transition was slow but smooth, and I did remember that I wanted to put my helmet on before anything else. The only issue became running with my bike shoes out to the road in order to mount the bike.
I don't know if you're aware of this, but it is hard to run in bike shoes without looking like a complete moron.
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| It's like walking in shoes with heels under your toes rather than, well, under your heels. |
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| Trying to get the toe clip in so I can get started. |
I had a minor issue getting both of my toes clipped in, but I managed it without falling over and injuring myself this time. After I got going, it was now time for an...
11-mile bike ride:
This was a nice course. There were a few hills to make it interesting (and one overpass you went over twice), and you did get to ride out in the Wisconsin countryside (which looks suspiciously like the Illinois countryside. Those copycats.) The last 4 miles or so were straight into the wind, and I shifted down to take some of the stress off my legs and calves I could feel building. I was worried I wouldn't know where to go out there, but there were volunteers at every turn pointing you the correct way. When I got back to the Hospital grounds I impressed myself with remembering to take my toes out of the toe clips at the bike stop line. After you dismount, you have to run into the transition area quite a ways....if I had to complain about anything, that would be it. But it's just because I chose to run in my bike shoes which, as I have pointed out previously, is hard to do. But it's what I had to do to get to....
Transition #2:
I didn't really want to do the 2nd run. I was tired. I was getting sick. It was hot. But I don't quit. So I threw on my running shoes (which seemed to take forever), switched out my helmet with my hat. This transition went much, much faster, except for the time I was struggling a bit to get out of my bike shoes:
So off I went, running on my weird-feeling bike legs:
And headed straight into....
Run #2:
Like I said, I really didn't want to do this. But off I went, not really feeling my pace because my legs were all crazy from the bike. I was pretty cranky at this point. In fact, the hubbs got a nice close-up shot of my run #2 crankiness:
I am yelling at him in the photograph. He tries to cheer me on by saying, "Go, Terie!" every time he sees me in a race. I guess I had had enough, because I told him he had to think of something different to say. I apologized later, but told him that this was like childbirth--I cannot be held responsible for anything that comes out of my mouth at the end of a run or duathlon. After that initial bout of unprofessionalism on my part, the run went OK. It wasn't pretty, but it got done (even as I thought hateful thoughts as I ran past a street named "Easy Street"). I was wheezing kind of badly at that point because my lungs decided to remind me that I was sick, and helpful volunteers stared at me with concern, reminding me that I was ALMOST THERE!!!!
The hubbs shot a really nice video of my finish, but he hasn't sent it to me yet, so I guess we're all going to have to wait on that. I estimated my finish time at around 1:15 or later based on my "training" this week (I don't know if you could call it that since I just decided to run this last weekend), but I came in at 1:08:26. I was pretty stoked about that (and am waiting anxiously for the results to be posted so I can see my splits!). I was also happy that I pushed myself in that last run. But the icing on the cake came when I realized I had placed 2nd in my age group:
This is most likely because the Rockford Marathon is tomorrow and people are taking their easy days today, so the real racers didn't show up. According to last year's results, I wouldn't have come anywhere near placing with the time I got. But, all's well that ends well, and this race was just the confidence-booster I needed to get me to sign up for my next one.
Now just to decide what that next one will be....after all, I spent gobs of cash on this bike. It needs to be taken to more races.
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